True Pacifists Help Others: ReWrite Your Future
by GamerWires627
Summary: Frisk has survived so many timelines that she's surprised her latest task- surviving eighth grade at Ebott Middle School- is difficult. Dance lessons for her, gymnastics for her sibling, piano for goat bro, and art lessons for her new sister introduce a little bit of joy to this world. But though she thinks she can make it, can the others? PTA meetings await, after all...
1. Windowside Thoughts

**Hey guys! This is the first chapter of the True Pacifists Help Others rewrite, so please review and tell me what you all thought! A thing real quick:**

 **Frisk uses she/her or they/them pronouns and is 13 years old.**

* * *

She lay her head against the cold glass, watching the raindrops contrast against the night sky that was splattered with lightning. Thunder boomed in the background, and she offhandedly wondered if Max and his dog were okay. The window was just barely cracked, letting the sounds of the splatters of rain reach her ears and damp air to whisk into the room.

Frisk loved to sit and watch the rain in the bay window. Every time it rained when she was at home, she would set herself up on the cushions and fluffy blanket on the little bench-thing, press her face against the window, and just watch. It didn't matter what time it was, what she was doing. She always watched the rain.

She pulled the fluffy sky-blue blanket around her shoulders. The fan was on and she was cold, but she always kept the fan on, so blanket it was. Her pajamas consisted of a white T-shirt and black flannel pants. Simple, and comfortable. Her dark hair reached just past her shoulders, long enough to put up in a messy bun (which is what she did occasionally, but never to sleep in).

Frisk still sat there in the bay window, bathed in the warm-colored, yet darker light of the farther nightstand lamp, the only light in the room. She had nothing to do, so she did the one thing she could.

Think.

Why was it that she was the Human/Monster Ambassador, yet seemed to be one of the most unpopular students at school? She had a tiny friend group consisting of a disaster lesbian, a nerdy trumpet-player with glasses, a suave artist, and a curly-haired dog lover.

Sure, there was Aki, Hana, and Bonnie, but that trio preferred to keep to themselves. And there was Kody and Emily, but they had their own friends as well. Elliot, the glasses-bound nerd, had a friend called Julia who reminded her awfully of Sans in some way (lazy yet smart, good at wordplay), yet she was a bit different (hardly sleeps at all, for one). Frisk had only seen her a few times and had spoken to her even less than that, but she seemed to dress like Sans too, always wearing a hoodie (usually blue) and black sweatpants.

Alex, the resident disaster lesbian, didn't grow up in the best household. Sure, to some it would have been fine, but not for her. Her mom, Linda, ran the PTA. There had only been one meeting so far in the school year, and neither Toriel nor Frisk had attended, but her Science teacher had gone on a rant first period, the day after, about how bossy and self-centered Linda was. Apparently, Linda was at least somewhat bigoted according to what little Alex had said about her mother (it was clear that she didn't want to talk about her).

Bella, the suave artist, was... mysterious. Not a lot was really known about her. All they knew? Alex and Bella were a couple, and had been since May. Bella was cool-headed and calm in most situations, a nice meditator when arguements got heated (relatively rare, but it happens), like the time a debate between Elliot and Max about Haikyuu! vs. Free! turned into Elliot crying because Max had insulted his mother.

 _Max._

If there were one word to describe Max, it would be _disaster_. If it were two, it would be _socially awkward_. The poor boy just didn't know how to handle most situations. He didn't now how to react when his father would get mad and scream at him, "MAXINE ELIZABETH TURNER!" He'd gotten grounded for 'talking back' after just that exact situation just a week ago or so. It hadn't been fun to hold off on group outings to the mall, Grillby's new diner, or the little cafe/bakery that Muffet opened up (thankfully, there were spider-free options on her menu).

But then her thoughts drifted to someone else. No, it wasn't really any of the monsters. Sans, Grillby, Muffet, Toriel, Asgore, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Napstablook, Shyren, Burgerpants, Mettaton, even the shopkeeper from Snowdin (her name was Amelia, which Frisk had found out recently), all of them were doing just fine, thank you very much. No, there was someone she had left behind, and she felt so, so guilty about it recently.

Flowey.

(Or, Asriel. Frisk wasn't sure which one it was.)

He was all by himself down there. Should she visit him?

Maybe. Even after all he'd done... he was still Asriel. If they could find a way to get his SOUL back... then Chara would have her best friend back, giving her a reason to come to life for real this time. Maybe... maybe even Frisk, Chara, and Asriel... maybe they could all be siblings, together.

But that little fantasy would have to wait for another day, because there was some knocking on her door, and then Toriel opened it, and quietly said something along the lines of, "My child, it is late. Please go to bed."

Frisk did so, but slowly, because she was comfortable in that window, dammit, but the lights went off and she curled up, and before she knew it, fell asleep dreaming about taking Chara and Asriel with her to Grillby's.

* * *

They were not brave.

They were not kind.

They were not just.

They didn't have much integrity.

They didn't persevere a whole lot.

They weren't really all that patient, either.

So why the hell did they think they could defeat the demons made of those exact things?

 _Because I'm the only one who can._

They sat up in the bed Frisk had only used for a short nap once, when she was still with Toriel. _Still can't sleep._ They began to head back out of the Ruins, to their usual spot, the place where they had met Frisk in the first place.

When they finally reached the spot where the moonlight gazed in, accompanied by rainfall, they let themself relax for a moment- but just for that.

Their hair was the color of the sunshine they'd never seen, and their eyes reflected the moon like emeralds.

 _I have the most DETERMINATION out of all the few left down here._

But they didn't stay long. They took a black hair band that was wrapped around their wrist (salvaged from Undyne before she left) and went to put their hair in a ponytail, leaving front bits out like they always did. They started walking back into the Ruins, summoning their yellow-green energy sword in their left hand the moment both hands were free.

 _I can never be too careful... especially with these little demons._

There was a rumbling, and they disregarded it. Earthquakes were commonplace in this area. But then it started getting a little stronger, and they knew it wasn't an earthquake, and then something hideous burst through the wall, taking the cieling behind it with it, closing the two off from the rest of the Ruins. "FUCK!" they shouted.

The creature was something to look at. It was in the somewhat-shape of a gorrila, almost, and seemed to be made of black goo. Murky green tendrils ran across its body, glowing and darkening in odd patterns. "Nice to see you again!" They yelled, readying themself for a battle.

A battle they fought every single day, now that Frisk was gone. These creatures- six in total- had surfaced (haha) just after she had left with everyone else.

But as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another opens.

With Frisk returning home, came Chara coming back.

And Chara wasn't nearly as nice as Frisk.

Thankfully, Chara didn't surface often. She usually was in the Hotlands, they believed. They had no idea why she was there, just that she was.

They bit their lip as the Green Being leaped towards them and they dodged.

 _Just another day in the post-Frisk Underground._

 _Frisk, wherever you are..._

 _Please come back._

* * *

 **HELL YEAH THEY'RE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!**


	2. Buses to Subs

**I feel so happy writing this and I don't know why, it's also midnight god help me. Also I changed the ranting teacher in the last chapter because of conflicting details.**

 **EDIT: Okay, I got this review I want to address real quick from either a troll or one of those fucking idiotic radfems.  
**

 _ **"Hi. I just needed to tell you that what you're doing is great, BUT, you got it all wrong. Maxine shouldn't be trying to be a boy. You're writing her as a traitor to all women by having her pretend to be a boy! All men and all boys are dirty pigs who should die, or at the very least, be slaves to the superior gender, women. If anything, rewrite Maxine as just a girl, or have her be a boy who wants to be a girl, because women are superior to men in every way!**_

 _ **Sincerely,**_  
 _ **Elite Radical Feminists."**_

 **Well, first of all, Max is a trans boy. He is not a girl. He is not pretending to be a boy. He does not WANT to be a boy, he IS a boy. He is not betraying girls by what he feels. He is a polyamorous, bisexual, transgender boy. You and your transphobic, misandrist comment will not change that. Men are not dirty pigs. Everyone is equal, men, boys, women, girls, and nonbinary people. No gender is superior to another.**

 **Max is a boy. Max has always been a (trans) boy in planning, writing, and the entirety of the original, so why the hell would I change his gender now?**

 **God, I hope you're a troll. I can't see anyone being this fucking stupid in real life.**

 **Anyway... let's get on with the rest, can we?**

 **Also, kudos to the guest Mr. Wiggles for being the first reviewer!**

* * *

Sunlight drifted in through the bay window as Frisk was brushing her hair with her favorite hairbrush (purple, big, square). Her hair was different every day- sometimes it was impossibly curly, sometimes it lay straight as a board. But, no matter what she looked like, people kept thinking she was Mexican for some reason. She had no idea why. When she'd said it out loud, this girl called Rylie who spoke with a southern drawl had described it in her own way. _"Black daddy and a white momma will do that to ya."_ Well... that much was true. Frisk didn't know how she had guessed, she'd never spoken to Rylie in her life.

But she turned away from her thoughts to finally pull her hair up into her standard messy bun. She was dressed already in a purple sweater that fell off her shoulder and a black skirt and white Converse high-tops. She checked her face and made sure her bun was a good level of messy (but not too much messy) before leaving her room, heading right down the stairs, snatching her backpack, and going right out the door.

Sans yelled something after her, but she hardly even heard him at all. He was still on the couch, like he'd been when she'd been looking for her shoes earlier, lounging around and lazily suggesting places for her to look.

She bounded down the porch steps and lept the last one, going at a full-on sprint to the bus stop. She'd spent way too long on her hair this morning, and it wasn't even a super-curly day. Plus, she'd hardly slept the night before because of her dream about going to Grillby's went south and in a really weird direction, and then she woke up.

She was so tired, in fact, that when Sans came to wake her up to get ready (Toriel usually woke him before she left for school, since he could literally sleep all day, and if he didn't fall back asleep, he was usually tasked with getting Frisk up) she just flopped out of bed and lay there for a minute like a slug. Thankfully, Sans was sleepy too, and he just took one look at Frisk attempting to go back to sleep, went 'meh', and went downstairs to nap on the couch. He knew she couldn't sleep on floors.

When she finally reched the bus stop, she was realived to find that the other two kids that shared the stop were not there. She didn't like either one of them, Hunter or Anna. She didn't even want to think about them after what happened at school yesterday.

The bus came just a momet later, and she made a beeline for her usual seat. She was one of the first people on the bus, which was a feeling she liked. She could sit wherever she wanted, and she chose the seat with a bump on the floor for the wheel.

She was settling in, about to put on her headphones, when someone tapped her on the shoulders. "Hey."

Oh, she'd know that voice anywhere. "Julia, hi." Frisk looked up.

Julia's shoulder-length hair was brown and messy, her forehead had a little bit of acne, her eyes were tired and the dark circles under them were back (another sleepless night, she supposed), but she was smiling wide, wide enough for her blue-banded braces to show. She wore her favorite blue hoodie with the hole on the left elbow. In her right hand, she held a purple and black fidget cube.

That was new- she normally brought her tangle (red, yellow, and blue) with her on the bus, but this was Julia. She was unpredictable, but then again, she was huge with stimming (in fact, their entire friendship was founded when Julia saw Frisk flapping her hands). She'd been known to break the little clips off of pens accidentally due to stimming with it, something that annoyed Frisk a bunch (thankfully, Frisk never had to loan her pens).

The brunette girl was draped over the back of Frisk's seat, her arms dangling down to almost reach Frisk's shoulders. "Okay, so, you know how we have that test in Social Studies?"

"Did you forget to study _again_?" Frisk sighed.

"Didn't forget," Julia said with a wink. "Just didn't."

"Same difference. Are you trying to say you need my study guide?"

"Yeah, fam, give it to me in homeroom so we can do it together, though. I don't want to cheat you out of last-minute cramming or anything," Julia responded.

"Okay," Frisk responded. There was suddenly a weight in the seat next to her, and Max was there, with his curly black hair and hazel eyes. "Max, hey!"

"Yo, whaddup, bro?" Julia held her hand out for a fist bump. Max couldn't seem to decide whether or not she was going to do the Baymax thing, but eventually his fate was decided by Julia doing the "ba-la-la-la" thing anyway.

Frisk suddenly gasped. "You're wearing the thing!" she exclaimed. She grabbed Max's wrist and rolled up his jacket sleeve to expose the bracelet she got him. The pattern? Horozontally, light blue, pink, white, pink, and then light blue. "Trans solidarity!" she whisper-yelled, rolling down her own sleeve to expose her own bracelet.

Max laughed, a joyful, content sound. Max had a good laugh. "Yeah. Not to mention the pan-slash-bi solidarity thing we have going on too."

"Oh, right."

The bus stopped again, and four people got on- a girl with brown hair in a braid and green eyes, a boy with the same brown-hair-blue-eyes, a redheaded girl with blue eyes and a sassy attitude that made Frisk be able to tell she wasn't in a good mood, and another black-haired boy, but he had dark brown eyes and glasses.

The redhead- Bella- made a beeline for the seat across the aisle from Frisk, plopping herself down and staring at the window. The brunette girl, Alex, sat next to her, gently setting her backpack on her lap. The noirette boy, Elliot, went right for Julia, tugging her down from her spot leaning over the seat.

Alex's twin brother, Jimmy, didn't sit anywhere _near_ his sister. He sat all the way at the back of the bus, because he thought he was something special or something. Linda spoiled him rotten, Frisk knew.

"It's a bad day today," Alex informed Frisk. "She doesn't wanna talk."

"Oh..." Julia said. "That's... a mood, honestly. But, okay."

* * *

Frisk was not having a good time.

First and second period had been fine enough (Study Hall and then Computers), but third period was when she really started hating life. You see, she had a certain _someone_ as her Pre-Algebra teacher.

Mrs. Linda Smith.

Frisk had learned to hate her after the first day. Yes, the very first day, Ms. Smith had misgendered her. Called her a "he". Frisk corrected her. But you see, instead of reacting like a normal fucking person (example: apologizing, saying she would try to remember her pronouns), she said something that grated on her nerves so bad, it was a wonder she didn't start crying on the spot.

"Don't be silly. You're not a girl. You are a young man. I'm aware of the little pranks that go on, the little lies you all like to tell. You won't fool me."

Frisk hadn't been able to tell who the 'you all' was referring to, trans people or just eighth graders. Either way, Linda never had referred to Frisk with her correct pronouns even once.

It was worse on days when Frisk dressed more feminine. Like today, with the skirt and the sweater and the hair.

She mentally braced herself, grabbing Max's hand as the duo walked into the classroom. Max was a victim of Linda's misgendering as well. In fact, he'd overheard Linda speaking to another teacher about him, saying he was, "just a girl playing pretend".

Julia was not in this class, and neither was Elliot. Both of them were in Geometry, Alex actually had Science for third period, and Bella was in her Social Studies.

Frisk lay her head down on the desk, just wishing for it to be over soon.

But suddenly, her prayers seemed to have been answered, someone else walked through the door. A sub.

* * *

She just couldn't wait any longer. She'd breezed past the rest of her school day with no problem (a minor altercation during lunch between Kody Carter and Amy Kipps, but nothing new), she'd ran right to the bus, ignored everyone else, got off, dumped her lunchbox at home, let Sans know she was going out, and then started running, backpack and all.

Frisk had to find Flowey.

She had to know that he was okay. She'd left him alone for too long.

After half an hour of avoiding trampling wildflowers whole still running, she finally reached the chasm. Cool air was rushing up, blowing the loosened strands of her messy bun out of her face. Looking back on it, she probably should have changed into pants before coming here.

She took off her backpack, grabbing a long rope and tying it around s nearby tree as tight as she could. Then she made a knot at the end of the rope and tossed it into the chasm.

And then she jumped.

* * *

 **YES I DID IT CHAPTER TWO HEYOOOOO**

 **Anyway I'm doing most of this from my phone so idk if I made many mistakes so**


	3. Her Name Was Claire

**im crying as I type this because I just finished the true pacifists route after five straight hours hhhhhhhh**

 **EDIT: I renamed my Tumblr, I call it rewrite-au-hq now if you want to check it out.**

 **EDIT 2: So the radfem responded, this time she wasn't as bad (but still kind of a jerk, since her "message" is a load of misandrist bullshit), yet if you're reading this, "Maxine" is Max's dead name. He would probably punch you in the face if you called him Maxine. It's Maxwell now. Just saying.**

 **(He goes by Max the whole time anyway, why are you even calling him Maxine?)**

* * *

The flowers were not as soft as she remembered. They were especially not soft when one was to face-plant into them.

Frisk groaned, lifting her face out of the bright yellow petals and nearly sneezing from the pollen invading her nose. The tied knot in the rope dangled an inch from her forehead. The sudden impact had knocked quite a few strands of her bun loose, but she disregarded it, standing and brushing sticky petals off her sweater and skirt. She tiptoed around the rest of the golden flowers and out of the sunlight, breaking into a run the moment the ground under her feet was flower-free.

She burst into the Ruins, thundering up the main steps. "FLOWEY!" she called. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"SHHH!"

There was a loud hissing from the shadows. Frisk looked over.

A kid her age, probably a girl but she wasn't too sure, with blond hair about collarbone-length (a mix of bedhead and running-around messy), deep green eyes that seemed to _want_ to pierce Frisk's very SOUL, but simply lacked the motivation to do so, and they wore a ragged green sweater and brown capri-length pants. They did not wear shoes, and their bare feet were scratched and scraped and blistered and one cut was still half-bleeding (what the hell had they been walking on?).

They were curled into a corner, fatigued and injured. They looked like they'd just gotten out of a week-long fight, with a long cut across their cheek, bruises, and multiple battle scars that seemed to be emphasized due to their haggard appearance.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" they spat, turning away from her. _Voice sounds familiar._ "Never seen a human before? Well, I'm guessing you see a lot of them now, _Frisk_."

Beat.

"...How do you know who I am?" she asked. There was a slight chill up her spine.

They snorted, and, surprisingly, began to stand. _Must hurt with those busted-up feet_. "Come on, _Frisky_." They began to advance towards her. She was frozen in place.

 _They're like, three inches shorter than me. Why am I so nervous?_ Eventually, they were close enough for their liking, and made a friendly, but threatening gesture- outstretching their arms as if asking for a hug, but the room seemed to darken. Their facial expression changed to one that made Frisk's blood run cold.

"Don't you remember **your best friend?** "

Suddenly, it clicked.

"Fl-Flowey," she choked out. "It's you."

She looked him up and down. "It's- it's really you."

He giggled, a high-pitched sound that seemed way more innocent than it was. "Who else would it be?"

"Oh my god," she muttered. "Holy crap. Holy crap!" She threw her arms up in the air in pure excitement. "This is so cool! I mean, you're somehow human now and that's weird, but oh-my-god I can't wait to take you home and be like 'hey guys remember Flowey, that guy who was also Asriel? Well he's back and he's alive and he's a human but that's good and-'"

"Ah-ah-ah," he said. His tone had the facade of being playful and cute, but hidden underneath were little tiny danger warnings. "First of all, I prefer _neutral_ pronouns."

 _Oh..._

"Second of all, _you cannot explain that I was Asriel to them. Don't fucking do it."_

Frisk gulped.

"Third of all, 'suddenly human' isn't true, I'm still a flower and can access that form. However..." Flowey made a shrugging motion. "Don't like it. I just recently gained access to this form. In fact... hmmm, just after you and all the monsters left the Underground. Oh, wait..." they let a bitter smirk crawl onto their face. "That was about four months ago. Oh, Frisk."

They let out a sigh, and faced away from her, towards the SAVE point and the red leaves. "You missed so much shit while you were gone."

"W-Well," Frisk said, finally speaking again. "Let's get you to the surface... okay? We can talk when we're up there, Flows."

They stiffened. " _Flows?_ "

Frisk held back a snicker at their confused tone. "Yeah. Flows. It's a nickname. Whaddya say?"

"..."

They were silent.

"Please, Flowey," she pleaded. "I've stayed up the past month worrying about you. It's not good for you to be alone down here," she pointed out. "I'm guessing whatever did _that_ -" she motioned to their injuries. "Isn't friendly. I am not leaving you down here with it."

"Jeez, Frisk." Flowey turned to face her again. "My answer was yes from the start." The corners of their lips turned up into a grin. "You didn't have to start trying to _convince_ me, I hate it down here. Besides, me leaving... it's not going to change anything down here, so... yeah. Let's get going."

Frisk felt a big smile decide to overtake her mouth as she was outstretching a helping hand to Flowey. "Come on."

They backed away. "Not so fast. I have some stuff I left back at Toriel's old house. I ain't leaving without it," they claimed.

 _Really? That's all the way through the Ruins..._ Frisk thought. However, her mouth said, "Okay, let's go," and before she knew it, they were off.

The walk was long and silent. She didn't ask them any questions. They didn't ask her. In the back of her mind, she wondered what the helll exactly was down here. Why Flowey actually seemed to care about some things. _Do they have their SOUL back?_

"That's a complicated answer," they sighed. It took Frisk a moment to realize she'd said it aloud. "Yes. I do have a SOUL. I probably shouldn't show it off, seeing as we're in a dangerous place, but yeah. I do."

"How?"

"Watch your step," Flowey pointed out. Frisk snapped out of her little daze- her path was obstructed by fallen rocks. She climbed through the hole in the collapse Flowey seemed to have made to bypass it, just as they had just done. "It involves a lot of things. The Six Human SOULS, my- _Asriel's_ original SOUL, Chara and _his_ magic..." they trailed off at the end. "It's complicated. I'll explain later."

It hadn't taken much time before Frisk and Flowey reached Toriel's old house. When they arrived, Flowey made a beeline for the bedroom Frisk had napped in, and she followed them. What she saw? Shocking- the wardrobe and box were overturned, a pillow was missing, the lamp was broken, and more. "What happened here?" she asked quietly.

"Something I hope you never see," Flowey responded. They grabbed a plain red drawstring bag off the ground and went for the bed. Off of it, they took a locket Frisk recognized _very_ well, a knife (or... dagger...) that Frisk also recognized, and... a...

"Is that a Hatsune Miku figurine?" Frisk giggled.

"Maybe."

"That's adorable."

"Shut up. I found it at the dump and I liked it, so I brought it with."

Frisk stopped for a moment. "The dump... did you... go there often?"

"Yeah... before the big cave-in, at least. Down in the hall leading to the big door, there was a big collapse of the ceiling. I can't get out anymore, and all the food in the Ruins is already gone. I haven't eaten in..." they squinted. "Fffive days? I think so, at least."

"Five days?!" she exclaimed. "There's no food at _all?"_

"Nope. Nothing. Did you really expect it to last longer than a few months?"

"Well..." she bit her lip.

Flowey finished putting their things into the bag (they had added a pastel yellow baby blanket when they thought Frisk wasn't looking) and slung it over their shoulder. They raised their hand to brush some hair out of their face, and Frisk noticed the red ribbon tied around their lower arm (about halfway between their wrist and elbow).

 _That's the Patient SOUL's Ribbon... how did they get it?_

"Claire."

Frisk realized she'd done it again, spoken aloud when she hadn't meant to. She seemed to do that around Flowey, maybe it was the nerves from being around a version of a SOULless Asriel that sort of had a SOUL.

"Her name was Claire," they mumbled. "Not that you'd care anyway." They brushed past her and started heading out the door.

Frisk reached out suddenly and grabbed Flowey's wrist, momentarily stunned by the boniness. _They're just skin and bones._

"Flowey... what happened? What's been going on down here?" she asked. "Please tell me."

"...I'll tell you later. But right now?" They grinned, and there was no malicious intent behind it. Their eyes finally looked like they had some hope. "I'm hungry."

She smiled too, and responded. "Well, in that case..." she moved, letting go of their wrist and slinging an arm around their shoulders. "Let's go to Grillby's after this."

* * *

"What the fuck do you expect me to do here?" they said, gesturing wildly at the rope. "I can't climb this."

The duo had finally reached the flowers and the rope, and Flowey was skeptical.

"Well... um... I will climb up and... you will let me pull you up," Frisk said, yet she phrased it like a question. "Would that work?"

"Hmm... maybe. Probably. Yeah."

"Let's do it to it!"

"Please don't reference Sonic in my presence."

Frisk hummed in amusement, then approached the rope. She began to climb, which brought back memories of begging her biological mother to let her take some sort of tumbling or gymnastics class (not because of an interest, but simply because she was tired of it being hard to climb the rope or do pull-ups in gym). She didn't need a bunch of knots anymore. She could do it by herself.

When she was nearly halfway up, she heard something. It sounded like a growl. She didn't dare look down and risk a fall, so she called out to Flowey, "What was that?"

Their voice was deadly serious, and she got a big chill up her spine. " _Hurry_."

Flowey sounded scared. They knew what was going on. She didn't. She hurried. She pulled herself up to the top. She was there on the mountaintop. Flowey was down there with something growling.

"Tie yourself to the rope!" she shouted down. She waited for a response. Nothing. "Flowey?!"

Still nothing.

 _No, no, no, no, no-_

* * *

 _'Mama, where's Tanya?' he signed._

 _She didn't answer. She didn't even see him._

 _He tapped her on the shoulder. He tried again._

 _"The room," she muttered. She was drunk again._

 _He walked to the shared bedroom and knocked on the door. No response._

 _He hummed and made noises to get her attention, but not too loudly. Mama would hurt him if she heard._

 _Still nothing._

 _He knocked harder._

 _No response._

 _He opened the door._

 _It was unlocked._

 _He screamed._

 _But nobody came._

* * *

There was a desperate shout and a harsh tugging on the rope. "Pull me up! Pull me up!" More harsh growling and shout of back off. Instead of pulling them up, Frisk looking into the chasm, and saw a black and sickly cyan blur that let loose a loud roar in Flowey's face, yet they didn't seem to flinch and instead thrust a sword-like object into the creature's chest. The rope was wrapped around their waist, and they started tugging harder as the creature flew out of sight. "Frisk!"

Snapped out of her daze, she began pulling hard on the rope, lifting Flowey as best she could (in all honesty, it wasn't that hard, they were extremely lightweight). She heard the sound of Friendliness Pellets being summoned (was there a better name for the attack?) and another howl was heard as Flowey likely sent the attack flying.

A blond head found the sunlight and began to lift themself out of the chasm, but suddenly they were pulled down with a shriek. Their knuckles turned white holding onto the rope and Frisk instinctively grabbed their arm to try and pull them up.

She finally got a good look at the creature.

Melty face.

Melty body.

Reeked of DETERMINATION.

A cyan heart on it's... "chest", tendrils running out from it and curling around its body. It was slender and tall. Arms long. Sharply curly black hair. Tattered dress that probably used to be blue or pink. Empty soulless eyes. Entire body black and melty. Groaning coming from mouth.

With a pang, she realized it was trying to speak.

 **"St-a...a.a.y-"**

It's hold tightened on Flowey's leg. Frisk pulled harder.

"LET ME GO!" they screamed. They were kicking and flailing, trying to get away from it.

With a screech, it let go and began to fall, landing with a massive thud on the floor of the cavern, destroying the flowers. Flowey flew up from the sudden lack of downward force and crashed into Frisk, causing the duo to start tumbling down the hill. Flowey ejected themself from the situation and squirmed out of the rope, getting to their feet, panting.

Frisk took a deep breath. It was over. Flowey was free. She began to stand as well, smoothing out her skirt and walking over to stand next to Flowey.

"Hey, uh..." she sighed. "What the fuck?! Was that?! Is that what you've been down there with?! For four fucking MONTHS?!"

Flowey turned and met her eyes. They brushed right past her, saying only four words. "Her name was Claire."

* * *

"Alright, come on up!" Frisk hollered through the window. She and Flowey were back at the house, and she was trying to get them inside without alerting anyone to their existence aboveground. She was kneeling on the cushion of the bay window, reaching out for Flowey's hand through the window itself.

Flowey looked up, deadpan. "You do know my arms aren't nine feet long, right?"

"Pfft, yeah. Just climb the tree. I'll pull you over from the branch."

" _The_ branch?"

"Yes. _The_ Branch."

Flowey sighed and walked over to the garbage can, pulling it over from the side of the house to the base of the tree. They climbed on top of it (thankfully they didn't have to go hunt for the lid) and grabbed hold of a sturdy branch, pulling themself up. "I'm probably going to die."

"No, you won't."

They finally made their way up to a high enough branch to grab Frisk's hand, and that's what they did. They took a little hop off the tree as best they could to get closer to Frisk, she pulled them up, they came through the window, and bonked their head on the window seat. "Ow!"

Frisk stood and backed up, shaking her head. "Alright, come on," she said, smiling. "Get up. We need to get you a better outfit before we go to Grillby's."

As Flowey stood, she headed to the closet for some clothes, pulling out a suitible outfit and tossing it at Flowey's face. "You can change in the bathroom, it's to the left when you get into the hall."

Flowey made a little hum of acknowledgement and left. Frisk immediately pulled out her phone and went to the contact registered as "Nerd Boy" and hit call.

"Elliot! Are you and Julia on your way to Grillby's?" she asked quickly once he picked up.

"Uh, yeah, hold on a sec. JULIA!" There was a big "WHAT" and then he responded for her to get her shit and get going, and then he hung up (Grillby's was a tradition).

Frisk fell onto the bed, instantly bored.

After a few minutes, there was a soft knock on the door, and then the person she'd just saved walked in looking very... like their knock. _Soft_.

They were wearing a big light blue sweater and black leggings. They'd brushed their hair and washed their face, and there was a bright pink band-aid on their cheek where the cut had been. There was a black hairclip pulling hair from their face. The red hair ribbon was now tied around their neck, the sleeves on the sweater too long and covering their hands.

Frisk sat up. "You look good," she said. "You're gonna need shoes, though." She, again, made her way to the closet and pulled a pair of soft black boots with floof inside and some socks from a forgotten corner. "I think these will work."

Flowey accepted the footwear, and while they were covering their feet, Frisk went back to the window and slipped a leg out, waiting for Flowey.

* * *

"Frisk!"

She turned at her name being called, and it was Alex and Bella. Flowey lifted their head, but when they saw who it was, they didn't seem to care. Julia, Elliot, and Max were approaching as well. Frisk nudged them in the ribs, ignoring their flinch, and whispered, "You could at least try to care."

Flowey rolled their eyes into the next century, leaning against the building that they and Frisk were standing in front of- Grillby's.

Max was still wearing his beanie, but his hair was pulled into a curly ponytail. Julia looked the same, but her hair was flat on one side like she'd just gone to Elliot's house for a nap instead of video games like the duo would normally do.

Alex and Bella's fingers were entwined together. Frisk thought it was adorable when they held hands.

Once everyone had gathered, it didn't take long for Bella to ask, and this is a direct quote, "Who the fuck is this blonde midget?" with probably about a thousand more question marks.

"I'm Flowey. It's not nice to meet you, tall-ass."

"Guys," Frisk began, stepping between the two. She could tell there was already Flowey-caused tension. "Let's just go inside. We'll explain why I brought them in a minute."

Alex tugged on Bella. "Yeah, let's go! I'm hungry."

Frisk watched as the group headed in.

And she did not fail to notice the flush on Max's cheeks, or the heart eyes whenever he looked at Flowey, who was, without knowing, probably the cutest person ever to Max, the resident disaster bi.

 _Aw..._

"Frisk," he whispered, leaning over. "Is that your sister or something."

"No, they're nonbinary."

"Oh. Are they your sibling then?"

"You... could say that."

"Huh..." he paused, lost in thought.

"Hey, let's just go inside, we can talk about your obvious crush later."

" _Frisk_!"

"What, am I wrong?" she giggled and ran inside, Max on her tail.

Oh, this would be the start of something _real_ special.

She just knew it.

* * *

 **THIS CHAPTER IS OVER 3,000 WORDS LONG.**

 **1\. END ME**

 **2\. don't get used to it**


	4. Flowey's Defense

**Welp, here we are, chapter 4! There was a scene that I wished I would have included (It'll have to be in this chapter) last time. Thanks to WiggleTron9000 for a amazing review!**

 **ALSO! Sometime before the publication of chapter 10, I will be changing my username to GamerWires627. It'll probably happen between 7 and 10, most possibly between 8 and 9.**

 **One more thing! I've created a Discord server! If anyone wants to join, PM me and I'll give you a link!**

 **(About Deltarune, I'm planning a short story for it soon, be prepped for that)**

* * *

"You know..." Flowey squinted at Julia. "You remind me of someone." They pointed at her across the table.

Julia shrugged and leaned back in her seat. "Do tell."

Food had been eaten. Secrets been shared. Conversations been had. Puns were made. Groans were sounded. You know, just your regular 13-year-old drama. I heard Sadie and Ashton used to date in sixth grade. _I_ heard from Gabby who heard from Olivia who heard from Hailey who heard from Lindsay who heard from Libby who heard from Audrey who heard from Elana that Tracy dated Ryan once! I heard Betty and MK are more than just friends! What if's and I heard's and That's a rumor's.

Frisk shook her head and leaned against Max with a smile. _Guess they picked up on the Sans-Julia connection too._

Grillby's new restaurant had the same comforting atmosphere as the old one. The regulars from the Underground were still there (every single one, at the moment), but nowadays, a few humans also seemed to like the place. Grillby himself was at the bar, just like he usually was. The group had all squeezed into a corner booth, so that there would be enough room for all of them- Frisk, Flowey, Max, Julia, Elliot, Alex, and Bella- making seven in total.

"I just can't put my finger on it," they grumbled. "It's annoying me."

"Sans. She's like Sans," Frisk interjected.

"Yes! Sans!" Flowey slammed a hand down on the table. Then they scrunched up their nose and eyebrows. "Ew. Sans."

Julia snorted. "What's wrong with this Sans guy?"

"Nothing, really. He's just like you. Flowey just..." Frisk shrugged. "Doesn't like him."

Flowey rolled their eyes. "You know exactly why I don't like him, Frisk."

"So..." Alex began. "Not to be rude, but, uh... what's your story, Flowey? Are you like, Frisk's long-lost sister or something?"

"Well... no." Flowey blinked. "I'm not Frisk's sister. If _anything,_ I _guess_ you could call me their sibling. And besides, I'm just a monster who came up from the Underground."

Bella smirked and leaned forward. "Come on. That's an easy-ass lie to see through. For one, you definitely look human. Two, school started a month ago, like, where have you been?" She met their eyes daringly. "You got some secrets in there, don'tcha?"

Flowey returned the gesture confidently, with a straightening of their posture and folding their hands on the table. "Well, you're right about that. But I'm not going to tell just anyone all my secrets."

Bella shrugged. "Fair enough."

Eventually, after some more smalltalk and Max asking for the bill from a passing waittress (yup, Grillby got two waittresses), Frisk laid a hand down on the table. "So... after we pay, we'll all go our seperate ways, right? Because me and Flowey need to go shopping, plus introduce them to the rest of the family..."

Elliot furrowed his eyebrows. "I am... not even going to ask why you have to introduce them."

* * *

Paying happened with no fuss, and now Frisk and Flowey were on their way back home so Frisk could get Sans to shortcut them to the mall. To be honest, Frisk was slightly dreading having to re-introduce Flowey and Sans...

But Frisk and Flowey came back quickly, and Sans was no longer on the couch. Instead, he was standing in the kitchen, holding a broken blue pen and glaring at a shotglass. "Hey, kiddo. Who's the new friend?" His tone was frustrated, but he turned away from what he was doing and calmed his expression.

"Um..." Frisk bit her lip.

"Aw, you really don't remember me, **Smiley Trashbag?** " They stuck their tongue out at him.

Sans chucked the broken pen at Flowey's face in an 'I don't care, you absolute piece of shit' fashion, missing by a long shot. "You are so lucky I'm too tired to kill you," he growled. "What the fuck are you doing here, shit flower? And why are you _not_ a flower?"

"It's a little something called a 'mixed SOUL'. Pretty cool, actually, even if it originally hurt like hell," they said. They seemed to think Frisk couldn't tell that they visibly wilted (ha) after the comments. "And I am here because Frisk was _such_ a _dear_ and decided to _rescue_ me from the absolute hellhole that is the Underground."

Sans gave Frisk an annoyed glance. "Undyne, Papyrus, Alphys, and Mettaton will be home soon. Toriel came home half an hour ago. Now, let me get back to throwing my pen into a shotglass."

"...What?" Frisk cocked her head to the side.

"You heard me."

"Actually..." Frisk began, stopping him before he went to go get a new pen. "We were actually hoping you'd give us a shortcut to the mall...?"

Sans turned around to look at the two thirteen-year-olds. He seemed to squint at Flowey for a moment before sighing and nodding. "Alright. Guess you need me to _throw you a bone_ here..."

Frisk giggled, Flowey groaned. Sans outstretched his arms, gesturing for each of them to take a hand. "Come on, you two." Frisk, used to using his shortcuts, grabbed his hand with no hesitation, while Flowey only did so after copious amounts of eye-rolling.

With a zip, a zap, and a little bit of cyan magic, they were there, standing in front of the local mall. Frisk let go of Sans and grabbed Flowey's hand excitedly, dragging them along, unknowingly ripping them away from Sans.

"Hey, Frisk? I need to tell you something real quick," Sans called.

Frisk let go of Flowey hesitantly and headed back. "What is it?" she asked him.

"I don't trust him," Sans said simply. "Are you sure it was a good idea to bring him up?"

"Yeah. They deserve a happy ending, just like the rest of us." Now Frisk was the one rolling her eyes.

Sans and Frisk locked eyes for a moment before Sans backed down, looking away sheepishly. "Well, I ain't about to argue with ya about him." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his blue jacket with fur on the hood, the jacket he always wore. She didn't know why he was so attached to it, but it wasn't the time to ask. "See ya on the flipside, Frisk."

"Bye."

Frisk turned away as Sans used another shortcut, and then she met up with Flowey. Then she realized she'd never mentioned Flowey's pronouns to Sans, and he'd kept using male ones. She took out her cell phone and began to text him.

 ** _You:_** _Flowey uses they/them btw_

A few moments later, he texted back.

 ** _Skelepun:_** _k_

Frisk put her phone back in her pocket (yes, her skirt had pockets, that's why she loved that skirt) and met Flowey's eyes. "So, let's go!" She grabbed them by the hand again and dragged them inside. They barely put up a fight.

In no time, the duo were standing inside the main hall of the shopping mall. "So, where do you want to go first?" she asked.

They shrugged. "I think we should go for clothes first. I mean, what else would we be here for?"

"There's other stuff to do at the mall, Flowey," Frisk mentioned. "But, okay. I mean, you can't mooch off my clothes forever..."

Frisk led them to the place she usually went to for her clothes. It was a pretty popular place among the girls and the (admittedly, few in retrospect) boys that didn't dress in only Under Armour or something.

"Hm."

Flowey started gravitating towards the flowier, baggier clothes (noticeably, in the women's section). They fingered a white sweater, then checked the tags. "You think a small would fit?" They looked up at Frisk to see her reaction.

Frisk frowned slightly, sizing them up in her mind. "You might wanna go for extra small."

"'Kay." Flowey found the size they were looking for, then draped it over their arm. Then they looked up at Frisk. "What, are you just going to stare at me while I shop? Go find your own stuff."

Frisk turned sharply on her heel. "Right!" _Some of my clothes have been getting small on me, anyway._ She glanced over her shoulder to see Flowey hold the sweater up to their chest to try and judge if it would fit.

 _Hope they find stuff they like..._

* * *

Frisk crossed her legs. She liked the shortalls she'd picked out, plus the sweaters and shirts, the blue overall dress, and a cute light purple dress with some really cool sleeves- the sleeves were down on her upper arms, and there were thin straps holding the dress up. She was wearing it now.

Now she was waiting for Flowey to come out of the dressing room. They'd held enough clothes up to them to know that 'very small' was very similar among the different kinds of clothes they picked. All they had to do now was try on a few outfits.

The door creaked open and out came the blond themself, wearing the white sweater- actually, looking a little closer to cream in this lighting- and faded skinny jeans. Even the very small seemed to be just barely too big in the sweater terms- the jeans looked perfect. They admired themself in the mirror for a moment, and Frisk noticed they'd tied the ribbon into their hair instead, now a bow on the left side of their head.

"Do you like the stuff you got?" she asked.

Without looking at her, Flowey nodded. "Yeah, I like..."

"Well, get changed, and we'll go."

Flowey walked back into the dressing room, and Frisk did the same. It didn't take her long to change back, so she was stuck waiting again.

* * *

"Can we hit the makeup store?" asked Frisk. "I have scars I need to cover and I'm running low. Besides, maybe you'll find something for yourself."

"Fine," they muttered, back in their sky-blue sweater, black-leggings combo. She had to say, they actually looked kind of cute like that.

Inside the makeup store, Flowey just let Frisk find her concealer and held the shopping bags (which she was greatful for). But then she heard some sort of commotion coming from the other side of the story.

"Come on!" some girl with bleached blond hair was whining.

A black girl with box braids was rolling her eyes in the background. "Let's just go, Lin," she said, pulling a girl with curly light brown hair along with her out of the store. "Don't wanna be here for Tracy's temper tantrum..."

Flowey was standing by the eyeliner while Frisk tried to block out the sounds of Tracy Dawson, resident basic bitch, throwing a temper tantrum. Tracy was a huge annoyance, bitch, and mean girl. Some entitled rich kid, you know?

"Why don't you have the foundation in my skin tone?!" she was screaming at the poor employee. Libby Knoph, one of her lackeys, didn't seem to care. Instead, she was gazing through the giant store window across the mall at the food court. Libby was thin- a requirement to be in Tracy's group. She was probably hungry. Libby had long, wavy, dark brown hair, freckles, and hot pink highlights in her hair. Pale green eyes complimented with some paler green eyeshadow. Surprisingly, she could pull it off.

Frisk was beginning to get tired of hearing Tracy whine, and her prayers were half-answered when she let out one finally loud one, then started storming towards Frisk. She was going for concealer. _Oh, fuck._

Tracy began scanning the colors. Then she saw Frisk's hand, with the chipped blue nail polish she'd insulted just this morning. "Hey, it's you."

Frisk pretended to be deaf.

"What are you? Tranny or a crossdresser? I'm betting on crossdresser, I've never seen you wear makeup a day in your life."

Her words hit Frisk like a brick wall. Oh, please, she really didn't need some asshat misgendering her, but here she was, in the same damn room as Tracy fucking Dawson.

Gabby Chase, another one of Tracy's lackeys, popped up, along with Olivia Last Name Unknown and Anna Kessler. Anna was the only one of note- long black hair straight down her back like a sheet, deep brown eyes, and eyeliner and mascara on fleek, yet the blue eyeshadow ruined it. She wore a pink cropped hoodie and leggings. Sure, Gabby was a ginger (she was allowed for straightening her hair) and Olivia was a natural blond, but it didn't matter. Everyone except for Libby didn't seem to know how to do makeup right.

"Who's bro is this? He's so ugly, he'd never pass for a girl," Olivia snickered.

Libby had a small white purse to go with her white sweater (sleeves reached all the way to her knuckles) tucked into her purple skirt with black transparent tights and ankle boots. She held it to her side, slipping out of the store with just some mascara. Then she made a beeline for the food court.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Tracy yelled. Frisk was jolted back into reality. She nearly folded in on herself, after realizing the situation again. "Why do we got a boy buying makeup?"

"Because Frisk isn't a boy," Flowey retorted. " _She_ is my _sister._ " They stepped in between Tracy and Frisk.

Tracy rolled her eyes. "And who the fuck are you? I've never seen you at school."

"Howdy! My name is Flowey. Flowey Dreemurr," they said, extending a hand with a fake smile. "I'm Frisk's sibling, but I'm homeschooled. I'm thinking about tranferring to your school, though."

Tracy rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "Whatever. I don't care. So why is your tranny brother buying makeup, then? Can't he just use yours?"

"Uh... no. She can't." Flowey blinked. "First of all, I don't have any. Second of all, we have veeeeery different skin tones..." That was true. Flowey _was_ quite pale.

Gabby laughed. "What kind of girl _doesn't_ have makeup?" she laughed.

Flowey kept smiling. "Well, I'm not a girl. And we're not here for me, anyway."

Anna turned up her nose. "So _you're_ the crossdresser?"

"I'm not a boy, either," they stated.

"So you're a special snowflake?" Gabby stated.

"Nope!" They folded their hands behind them. "I'm nonbinary. I use they/them pronouns." Frisk could tell they were getting tired of the nice act.

Tracy rolled her eyes again and jabbed Flowey in the chest with a long, manicured nail. "Listen here, weirdo. You look like a girl, you are, like, a fucking girl. So you're his sister."

By now, Frisk had found her concealer and picked up a mascara. When no one was looking, she grabbed that eyeliner Flowey had been looking at, and then went to go buy it while they settled the situation. The cashier said nothing, all he did was nod sadly in the direction of the popular girls. When Frisk got back, the situation had gone to absolute shit.

"You are gonna be sorry tomorrow at school!" Tracy screamed, pointing at Flowey aggressively.

"Sorry, I don't attend _clown_ school like you four," they retorted. "Just look at the _shit_ all over your faces," they hissed.

Frisk grabbed the bags and then, with her free hand, took Flowey's hand. "Let's go," she murmured.

And then they were off, out of the store in one fell swoop. She hoped they didn't see the tears welling in her eyes as she texted Sans to come pick them up.

* * *

Coming back, Frisk let go of Sans's hand a lot faster than normally. She set down her bags by the door and went straight upstairs, leaving Flowey and Sans in the kitchen.

Of course, Sans's first instinct was to turn to Flowey. "What did you do?"

Flowey put their hands up in an 'I surrender' position. "I didn't do anything! Some bitches at the makeup store did, though."

Sans frowned. "What did they say?" He shoved his hands into the pockets of his black basketball shorts, a habit he seemed to never have broken...

"They misgendered Frisk and called her a slur," they responded. "I swear, I didn't do anything. In fact, I defended her!"

Sans looked away from them. "Listen," he sighed. "I still don't trust you. So what I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna introduce you to Toriel. And I'm gonna tell her the truth."

Beat.

"What do you mean... 'the truth?'" Flowey asked cautiously.

"That you're really a flower and you've done bad things," Sans answered. "I'm gonna tell her you need a place to be. That you're 'looking for redemption' or some shit."

Beat.

 _He doesn't know._

"Hey, what's with that face?" Sans asked. "Come on, don't _wilt_ on me now."

 _He doesn't know who I really am,_ Flowey thought. _He doesn't remember me._

"While that sounds _lovely_ ," they said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I think I should go upstairs and comfort Frisk." They held their arm, almost like they were hurt, and then began to go up the stairs like they said they would. "You can tell Toriel whatever you want about me."

Flowey didn't bother to stick around and see Sans's reaction, they only knew that he probably left to go find Toriel and tell her all about them. When they reached the top of the stairs, they turned right to go into Frisk's room. The door was just barely cracked open, so they quietly let themself in.

"Frisk?"

She was laying on her stomach on the bed, face pressed into a fluffy purple pillow. Her entire bed was purple, except for the small, light brown stuffed bunny on the white regular pillows. She turned her head when she heard their voice. She didn't speak. Instead, she lifted her hands for sign language, signing something shakily.

'Hi. What's up?'

Flowey frowned at her, sitting on the side of the bed and kicking their shoes off. "Frisk, don't pretend everything is okay. You ran up here crying."

Frisk seemed a bit surprised. 'You understand sign language?' she signed, sitting up.

They scoffed. "'Course I do. I can only fingerspell, though." They scooted a bit closer to Frisk. "Do you... wanna talk about it?"

She took a minute before wiping away tears and signing again. 'No, I'll be fine...'

Flowey gave her a warm smile. "Okay-"

"Hey, shit flower!" Sans hollered up the stairs. "Get down here!"

"Fuckin' Sans..." they grumbled. They stood up, rolled their eyes, and headed out of the room. They paused in the doorway to glance back at Frisk, but only for a moment. Then they started downstairs.

Toriel was standing there, smiling kindly. "Hello, my child. I am Toriel."

"Howdy," they said simply.

She began to walk over to the kitchen table. "I have your forms on the table here. We will need to fill them out before we can register you for school."

 _Forms?_

Frisk seemed to materialize out of thin air next to them on the stairs. 'All the monsters had to fill out basic information forms when they came to the surface,' she signed, seeing the confusion ridden on their face. She led them to the table in the chair closest to the wall, leaving the chair in between herself and Toriel for Flowey.

They sat down, as implied, and Toriel began to explain the papers. Sans was there, watching from a distance, suspicious of anything Flowey did apparently.

"What's your name?" she asked, pointing with the pen to the area on the paper.

"Flowey."

"Last name?"

"...Dreemurr, I guess," they mumbled.

"O-Oh..." _She probably thinks I 'already consider myself her child'._

"Um, date of birth?" she asked, putting her current feelings aside.

"...April 15."

"I need the year as well, my child."

"2011."

After doing the math in her head, "You're only _seven_?!" she exclaimed.

"No, not technically," they said quickly. "My type of monster ages a lot differently than humans and most other monsters do," they lied.

"I see."

"Physically, I'm about 13 in human terms."

* * *

The rest of the sheet was filled out, and then they all went down the split-level stairs for the computer in what seemed to be a mix of an office and second living room to register Flowey for school. The blond just sat back and let Toriel do it all, since they were pretty uninterested in school as a whole.

"Flowey?"

"Hm?"

"I need you to pick your electives, and if you'd like to be in any advanced classes." Toriel backed away from the computer, letting Flowey roll up to it in the office chair. They raised their right hand to the mouse and propped their head up with the left, elbow on the desk.

It didn't take them long, and they ended with a schedule that went Computers, Study Hall, Advanced English, Advanced Literature, Lunch and Homeroom, Advanced Science, Algebra, and then finally regular old Social Studies.

"You got some advanced classes..." Frisk murmured, leaning over their shoulder. "Except for Social Studies with Mr. Anderson. Hey, I'm in that class too..."

"Huh. Anyway, I'm beat." They jumped out of the chair, ignoring Toriel, Sans, and Frisk's odd looks at them. "I think I'm gonna go settle in upstairs. Later Trashbag, Frisk, Tori."

Once they were heading up the stairs to the room Flowey guessed they shared with Frisk now, they cringed at realizing they had just called their mother 'Tori'.

When Flowey reached the bedroom, they picked up their drawstring bag and set it on the bed. As they opened it, Frisk came in and laid on her stomach on the bed, head resting on the fluffy purple pillow.

The first thing they took out was the Miku Hatsune figurine. That went on the dresser. Then, the knife. Flowey and Frisk locked eyes before Flowey just decided to put it back in the bag. Next was the locket. Flowey quickly put it on and tucked it under their sweater, so that it was not visible.

The last thing was the light yellow baby blanket. "Was that... Asriel's?" Frisk asked.

Flowey looked over at her. "Yeah... It was actually the first thing I went to go find after I got the human form thing." They balled it up and tossed it at her head. "It's comforting, I guess."

Then they joined her laying on the bed, flopping onto their back just after tossing the bag with the knife in it across the room. She put the baby blanket on their face playfully.

"Rude."

She snickered, and then it was silent again.

Silent until her soft voice came again. "What was that thing earlier? The thing that chased us?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. It can't leave the Underground," they assured her. _At least, it shouldn't be able to..._

* * *

 **OH  
MY  
FUCKING  
GOD**

 **4,031 WORDS**

 **I  
AM**

 **DEAD**

 **(review plz)**


	5. Scarred

**Welcome to the chapter where PTSD symptoms happen and Flowey makes friends.**

 **Also, for the review about nonbinary Flowey sent by GhostieDragon: you're mostly right, but it's also them not having figured themself out fully until the Alone Four Months. (also it is not a _want to be_ , they _are_ nonbinary)**

* * *

Frisk's eyes opened blurrily, finding the digital clock on the windowsill immediately- 1 AM. She groaned, rolling away from the light, and faced Flowey.

She and Flowey had needed to share her bed that night, causing the blond to have fallen asleep all the way on the other side of the bed passive-aggressively. But now, they had wound up closer to the middle. Right by her.

A cloud moved outside, and the moonlight let her see something slightly alarming- their cheeks were wet with tears, and their face was scrunched up. They were muttering something under their breath, too, and they sounded pretty distressed.

 _What's going on here?_

She scooted closer and wrapped her arms around them. At the first instance of contact, they immediately buried their face into her chest with a single choked sob. They clung onto her tightly, trembling in her embrace.

Frisk felt around for that soft yellow blanket from earlier, snatching it and wrapping it around Flowey's head. A few moments later, their breathing calmed, and they went from muttering, shaking, and sobs to soft whimpers and a tense frame.

About a minute later, they'd calmed more and seemed to be sleeping somewhat peacefully.

 _Wish I could have someone do that with my nightmares..._

* * *

Emerald eyes snapped open. They nearly sat bolt upright, but then they saw the face next to theirs, facing them. Brown skin, a scar on her cheek, and hair in her face. A familiar face. Frisk. She was clinging onto them- no, they were clinging to her- in their sleep, and their head was covered by Asriel's baby blanket.

They slipped out from her grasp, leaving her to groan about the lack of a cuddle buddy, and stood in the room. Sunlight came through the bay window, and the clock displayed proudly 7 AM.

Flowey stared at their own face in the mirror. After a good night's rest, which they'd finally gotten after four months of the human form, the bags under their eyes were signifigantly less noticable. They were wearing black, soft shorts and a white baggy t-shirt- the outfit they'd slept in that night. Their blond hair had some pretty intense bedhead. They spotted a purple square hairbrush on the dresser and went for it just as Frisk sat up.

"You okay?" she yawned.

"What do you mean?" they asked, furrowing their brows and wincing as they began to brush the knots out of their hair.

"Last night," she said, beginning to also slip out of bed. "You were crying in your sleep. You were saying something, too, but I couldn't figure out what it was. The only thing that calmed you down was holding you and putting Asriel's baby blanket on you."

"Oh." Their cheeks flushed, not a rarity in the last few waking hours (dinner had been pretty awkward since they didn't answer most questions sent their way). They could barely remember the nightmare, so they guessed it was your typical garden-variety one. They were pretty common during the past four months.

Looking closer at their face and pausing their hair-brushing, they could see faint tear stains on their cheeks. _I guess I did cry_. It really wasn't uncommon for Flowey to have woken up with a wet face back in the Underground, but the mumbling seemed new. Then again, they probably just never knew they did it before, since they had been alone.

They hugged themself, suddenly cold. They felt the ugly scars criss-crossing on their wrists and, actually, most of the space on their arms. They looked down, and sure enough, scars just like them were on their legs. They really shouldn't be surprised, but it may have been seeing them after the reality of being on the surface had sunk in.

 _Wonder why I thought hacking myself up was a good idea. The Soul Demons sucked enough,_ they thought, even though they knew exactly why they had done it. Sure, some of their scars were from those things, (actually, almost half) but not all...

Frisk rolled out of bed- quite literally, she was now face-down on the floor- and mumbled something incoherently.

"What?" Flowey called over their shoulder as they continued to brush their hair.

"Hungry!" she shouted, rolling onto her back.

"Good for you."

"Floweyyyyyy," she whined. "Help me up."

"No, get yourself up."

"I can't. I am a sleepy girl."

"Oh, come the fuck on."

"Help." She extended a weak hand.

Flowey sighed and turned around, tossing the hairbrush aside. _Guess I'll have to take care of this bedhead later._

Frisk using their hand to stand up nearly toppled them over, as she weighed a bit more than them. Once she was on her feet, she bounced up and went right out there door. Flowey decided to follow her, since they had barely even eaten at said awkward dinner. _She didn't say anything about my scars._

As they descended the stairs, they rubbed the sleepiness from their eyes and stifled a yawn. They took the chair next to Frisk and nearly put their head down on the table.

Toriel hadn't left for school yet. She was bustling around the kitchen while two Pop-Tarts were in the toaster. _She probably woke up late._ Frisk stood up and went for cereal, it seemed, since Toriel looked busy.

 _What if I stayed?_ they wondered. _What if I made Frisk go back up by herself? Maybe..._

"Flowey, I printed out your schedule for you," said Toriel. Flowey jumped slightly- they'd zoned out and hadn't seen her approach. She was smiling. Kindly. Warmly. Why? "You also have to report to the office when you get to school since you are new." Then she set the schedule down on the table, went back for her Pop-Tarts, grabbed her bag, and went right out the door. _Guess she_ was _late._

Frisk came back holding two bowls of Froot Loops or whatever they were. She set one down in front of Flowey, minding the schedule. Frisk then sat down with her own bowl and started eating. Then they saw it. _She has scars too._

Flowey turned their attention onto the schedule. It had the same classes as they'd chosen. Or at least, they thought it did, as it was hard to see. The print was small. Their locker number and combination wasn't on it- that's probably why they would have to go to the office.

* * *

Flowey smoothed out their green sweater nervously. _Wait, why am I nervous? It's just school._ Along with the sweater, they were wearing black skinny jeans, the fluffy black Minnetonka boots of Frisk's, and they'd decided to tie the ribbon around their neck and let the heart locket be on their chest, visible againt the foresty green of the sweater. Their hair was brushed nicely, with a few barettes to hold it away from their face for once.

Frisk had on a very-light-lilac cropped sweater, faded, high-waisted, and ripped jeans, and black flats. She left her hair down, brushed behind her. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for the bus.

Then Flowey saw the yellow behemoth turn the corner, and that's where their attention went. It wasn't long before it reached the duo. Frisk got on first and went for a seat that was more in the front.

Since Frisk and Flowey seemed to be one of the first stops, they went for a seat closer to the back in defiance. Their backpack went on the seat next to them, and their eyes went looking out the window.

"Hey."

They jerked their head around. That petite brunette girl that reminded them of Sans was across the aisle. She was looking at them curiously. "Can I sit?" She gestured to where Flowey's backpack lay.

Flowey didn't say anything, just moved their backpack to be on their lap. The girl crossed the aisle in one quick movement and put her own backpack on her lap. "You remember me?" she asked.

"Your name's June or something," they muttered. "You remind me of this guy I know." They wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Close. It's Julia. You're Flowey, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. Frisk said she thinks we have the same first couple classes."

"Whatever."

"Whoa. We got a salty child over here," she said, smiling.

Flowey rolled their eyes at her, but couldn't stop the corners of their lips from turning into a slight grin. "You're persistent, aren't you?"

"I dunno. Maybe I'm just brave enough to be the new kid's friend, and I also refuse to take no for an answer, soooo..." she trailed off. _Brave. Been a long time since I met the brave kid._

"You probably have something better to do than befriend someone like me," said Flowey.

"Are you sure about that?" she challenged. Julia raised her eyebrows.

"...I don't know, actually."

* * *

"The office is this way," she called. Julia led Flowey down the hall to the main office.

Once inside, the secretary noticed the duo. "Hello, are you the new student?" Flowey nodded. She handed them a different copy of their schedule over the counter- it was in a different font, even smaller print, but did contain their locker number and combination.

As Julia and Flowey left the office, Flowey unfolded their schedule and pointed to the locker stuff. "Can you, uh... read that for me?"

Julia looked over their shoulder. "You got locker 8176, and your combination is 21-10-37. What, do you need glasses?"

"Probably," they shrugged.

"Well, 's not gonna really matter in Computers. You can just make the font size bigger," she suggested. "Anyway, let's go drop off your backpack in your locker, I'll get my stuff, and we'll head over to Miss Mandilla's class."

"'kay," they mumbled.

Locker wasn't hard to find (they did need a little help to open it, though), Julia was fast getting her things, and they set off for Flowey's very first class.

The Computers room was large, with about thirty to forty desktop computers in rows of about eight. The teacher's desk was behind all of them- probably so she could see the screens. Julia went for her seat, so Flowey went to the teacher by themself.

Ms. Mandilla was young, had straight brown hair, and tired blue eyes. She had three compter monitors, yet only one was in use with a Google Document. She looked up at them before they said anything. "You're the new kid, right? You're sitting next to Julia."

Flowey just nodded and went over.

Once they'd sat down, the first thing they did was steal Julia's pen and rewrite their locker number and combination in bigger print at the bottom of the paper. She didn't seem to care, only mumbling for them to put it back when they were done. "Let me see your schedule," she also said. "I'm gonna see what we're in."

They passed it over, and she leaned over it for a few moments before announcing, "After this, both of us go to Study Hall. Then we aren't going to see each other until Lunch. I'll be waiting by your locker, you can sit with me and my friends. Then we have Advanced Science and Algebra together."

She looked up at them. "You okay with sitting with my and my friends?"

Flowey didn't really have much to say.

"Sure."

* * *

All their classes had been pretty boring. It was the same thing every time- seats, textbooks, attempting to catch them up on the material. Flowey rounded the corner, holding their binder to their chest, and saw Julia leaning against the locker next to theirs. She was talking to that Max kid, and a blonde girl with hazel eyes. Both of their eyes trained on Flowey as they approached their locker.

"Hey," she said. Flowey made a small murmur of acknowledgement. "You already know Max, and this is Sadie."

Flowey closed their locker, holding their lunch bag, and turned around to look at Sadie more clearly. She was wearing a black cropped jacket, a dark purple longish shirt (kind of like a tunic, really), and black leggings.

"There's this kid, Ashton, that sits with us too," Julia added. "C'mon, let's go."

She started to head down the hall, blabbering about whatever to Sadie as she went. Flowey tried to follow the conversation, but they really couldn't. Max kept looking at them awkwardly. _What's with him?_

When they finally reached the cafeteria, Julia made a beeline for a round table that was slightly taller than the rest. There was a ginger boy with green eyes there, wearing green flannel. "Ey," he greeted. "I'm Ashton."

Max sat down next to Ashton, Sadie went a seat away from him, Julia went next to her, leaving Flowey to sit next to her.

Sadie and Max both went up to buy lunch, leaving Flowey with their new friend and a stranger. "You're new?" Ashton asked.

"Yeah."

"Cool."

Flowey leaned across the table, lazily opening the green lunch bag. The lunch Toriel had packed looked good, but they weren't hungry. They pushed it aside a bit, removing only the slice of butterscotch pie from the bag, opening the tupperware and poking it with their plastic fork.

Julia had already dug in, and Ashton seemed to be doing homework instead of eating. Flowey fiddled with their sleeve. For some reason, it rubbing against their scars was more irritating now than it had been all day.

"So!" Julia said suddenly. "I think we're all in the same homeroom, and then we all have our Science after that."

Dead silence. Someone across the room probably coughed.

"Okay, then," she mumbled, drinking her Gatorade.

Sadie and Max made it back to the table, the former with a slamming of her lunch tray. "So, can we all agree that Season 2 of Black Butler was absolute shit?"

"How dare you do my boy Alois dirty like that," Ashton said, not looking up from his work. "Now, I will officially be out of this conversation, as I am doing my damn homework, you heathens. There's a PTA meeting tonight and my mom's gonna make me come with her. Even though today is the fifth anniversary of my brother's death." His tone shifted as he said the last bit, and Flowey was intrigued. Why? They didn't know, it wasn't their business. But something kind of... resonated in them when the mention of the brother occurred. _He didn't even say his name... why was that so interesting?_

"Your brother? You had another one?" Sadie was frowning. Max and Julia were following the conversation, the latter biting her lip. _She probably knows about the brother._

"I thought it was just you and Ryan," Max added.

"Nah... I had another brother, actually," said Ashton. "He died, though. My mom doesn't seem to care anymore, though. Think she never really loved him anyway..." he mumbled.

 _That's fucked._

There was silence. Then, Max clapped his hands and shouted. "Hey! Season 3 of Attack on Titan!"

 _That is an anime. Also somewhat fucked. Though, depending on what anime, the fuckedness can vary._

Flowey sat back with their pie as the four in front of them launched into a heated discussion about anime. _Who knows? I might actually eat this pie._

* * *

"...and that is the story of how I wrote an entire essay about a video game and my teacher gave me an A plus for it!" Julia finished.

"Wow."

 _That's actually impressive._

"Don't mind her. She tells that story to anyone she can get to listen," Ashton responded.

The three were walking down the hall after Algebra. Julia had neglected to mention that they all shared that class too. Now was when they all split- she had to go to Literature, Flowey had Social Studies, and Ashton had... something. He didn't say.

Julia and Ashton kept walking while Flowey stopped at their locker to leave their new textbooks in it before heading down the hall. They heard the sounds of the new conversation fade out as they closed their locker and began down the hall, the same way they'd came.

Rounding the corner, there was suddenly somebody there that they hadn't expected to be. She dropped her books in surprise, and a few slips of paper with cursive writing fell out of a copy of And Then There Were None. _Probably what she was using as bookmarks._

And then they realized they had dropped their binder too, and were standing like an idiot as she tried to gather her things. Flowey crouched down to grab it, and on impulse, helped her gather her fallen books. _It's my fault she dropped them, anyway._

"S-Sorry," she stuttered. "You sh-should p-p-probably just g-go, I got it..."

"You sure?" Flowey asked. They actually looked at one of the slips, and, since the handwriting was in _cursive, ugh_ it was hard to read, they could only make out a little. But, what they _could_ read, seemed to be stanzas of a poem.

She took it from them quickly and stood, having gathered everything else. "S-See you..." and then she was gone.

Flowey stood as well. They were almost about to keep going when they heard someone behind them. "That's Luna."

They whirled around. "Frisk!" they shouted. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" They would have punched her in the arm, if not for them currently holding a binder with both arms.

Frisk smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." She raised her hands. She wasn't holding anything. "C'mon, let's get to class."

As the Dreemurrs ( _ugh_ ) walked, Flowey remembered what Ashton said earlier. _PTA Meeting._

"What's a PTA meeting?" Flowey asked.

"Parent Teacher Association meeting. Basically, the parents and the teachers meet up to discuss stuff about school. Issues, events, clubs, sports, school play, stuff like that. Though, usually it's just a big cluster of soccer moms getting mad at each other," Frisk explained.

"Huh." Flowey paused. "Ashton said there's one tonight and his mom is making him come."

"There's a meeting tonight? Really?" She raised her eyebrows. "We should probably go. Mom's probably going to have to, so we should tag along."

"That's a plan, I guess," they mumbled.

Frisk opened the Social Studies door for them, and then stepped through herself once they were through. "I think you know the 'new student' routine by now," she quipped.

* * *

Sans glanced at the clock on the microwave. 4:45 PM. Flowey and Frisk were home and upstairs, Toriel was down in the split-level office. _Think she's grading papers._

He looked up the stairs. There was no shouting, so he assumed everything was fine. _Jeez, I really don't trust him- them- with Frisk,_ he realized. _But they have fooled everyone before. They could just do it again._

"Sans?"

He turned to the source of the voice, and there was Toriel, standing just out of the split-level. "I need to ask a favor of you," she began simply.

"What is it?" he asked casually.

She smiled sheepishly (oh wow, that was nearly a pun). "There was just a large essay due in my class, and there are a lot of papers to grade. With these and all the others, I'm afraid I've gotten a bit behind on grading. I'm also supposed to go to the PTA meeting tonight. So, can you go to the meeting in my stead?" she asked.

"Sure," he agreed simply.

Toriel was immediately relived. She thanked him and immediately went back to the office.

Sans turned towards the door. "Hey, Tori! When's the meeting?" he shouted.

"Five!" she called back.

 _I should leave soon._

Then he saw the two young teenagers on the stairs, listening in. Frisk was in front, Flowey hiding behind her _like the coward he-_ they- _were._

"Hey." His voice briefly broke the thick silence.

"Can we come with you to the PTA meeting?" Frisk blurted out. Flowey just covered their hands with their sweater sleeves.

"Sure."

* * *

 **Oh wow, hi guys. Again. This chapter happened fast. I'm a bit over 3500 words on this chapter I think. I'm writing most of this at 2 in the morning, so if there are any horrendous spelling errors, I'll go through later and fix them (don't bother to mention them, I'll get them).**

 **As always, review so I can have feedback and know what I've done right, what I've done wrong, or just to tell me anything. If you want to check it out, my tumblr is ask-the-rewrite-au.**


	6. In Which Sans Has Had Enough

**hAAA HAHA ITS BEEN A WEEK AND I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING FOR CHAPTER 6 HAHA KILL ME**

 **For Gaster123's review: Thanks! Yeah, the events are pretty mixed up, and the entire plot is actually quite different from what originally happens (Flowey's suicide attempt may not happen until the end of the story if at all, more Luna focus, less in-your-face with the relationships, characters have been cut, etc.).**

 **GhostieDragon: I know the review was for chapter 4, but I was rereading my answer to it in chapter 5 and I realized that I probably came off as a bit rude when I corrected the 'want to be' thing. I'd like to offer an apology, since I feel guilty about that...**

* * *

She was lounging on the throne. _God, I wish I could have gone up with them all,_ she thought. _But one, Sans would kill me. Two, who would watch the Underground? Three, who would take care of my little minions? Four, well... someone needed to give Flowey a new body._

She felt a grin take over her lips. "Oh, Paishey~!" she called out. "How's our favorite flower child doing?" _Should die soon..._

The lanky demon (gosh, she was still proud of her first demonic creation) lumbered over to her. What came out when she opened her mouth was a raspy, tortured sound.

 **"L...e...f...t...m...e...?"** she gasped out, tilting her head at her creator. **"D...idn...wa...n...t...to...p..la.y..."**

Chara's grip tightened on the armrest of Asgore's old throne. " _What?!"_ she hissed. "If you're playing a joke, it isn't funny! There's absolutely no way Flowey could have made it out alive! Remember-"

Chara sprung from her seat and grabbed Paishey by the chest. **"I made you. I can just as easily _destroy you. I_ run the Underground now. No more Asgore. No more Toriel. _Me._ "**

"I'm afraid it's correct," a smooth voice called from the shadows. Chara grumbled and returned to her seat. "There have been no life signs spotted in the past day."

"Flowey's been gone a whole _day?!_ " she hollered. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

The figure stepped out of the shadows. He was a skeleton, wearing a black coat, white turtleneck, and black pants. His form was distorted, as though he was about to melt. There were fractures in his skull, and perfectly circular holes in his hands. "Well, I simply thought our 'favorite flower child' had finally kicked the bucket. That _is_ why you sent Paishey to the Ruins... isn't it? To make sure Flowey was dead?"

Chara grumbled and slumped down in the throne, crossing her arms. " _Yes,_ it was, in fact. But I sent Paishey to the Ruins a day ago! So, why-" she sent a big glare at the demon. "Didn't you tell me nobody was there?"

 **"There...w..a..s...girl...she...t...o...o...k..."**

Chara's eyebrows popped up. "A girl? Really, Paishey? Who?"

 **"N...ame...is...C...la...ire...not...Pai...sh...e...y..."**

The aburnette leapt up again, her red eyes blazing. "That isn't what I asked you. I asked who the girl was. Your name isn't Claire. You are Paishey. Claire is your old name. Your old 'you'. Don't get rebellious on me. You know what happened to the last one who did..." Chara glanced to the corner. There was a figure there, in a dark purplish-blue robe, their face covered. They were silent. Their hands moved in small, precise ways, saying something in sign language they'd been repeating for a while now. 'Sorry'.

 **"G...i..rl...d...a...r...k..."** Paishey rasped. **"H...air...like...m..e...Cu...rls..."**

"Dark, curly hair?" Chara frowned. "Any other details?"

 **"Sk...in...da...rk...too...She...kn...ew...child..."**

"So... her skin was dark, her hair was dark and curly... and she knew Flowey?" Chara stiffened suddenly, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks. "Ha...ha ha ha... Of course... her... ha... Frisk..."

Standing in a line, Chara's other proud creations. Six in total. One popped it's head up at the mention of the eighth human. **"Frisk! Frisk, Frisk, Frisk! She okay? Frisk!"**

"Shut up, Just," Chara shouted. It didn't care much, still muttering her name under it's breath. "All of you... dismissed. Go do whatever."

Kine brushed past everyone, it's hair smacking Brae in the face. Persev, Just, and Inta followed mindlessly. Paishey was frozen for a moment. Then it did the same as the others.

"I suppose you're losing your touch... Your Highness," the skeleton man teased, coming more into her view. "It seems to me you're losing control of your 'subjects'. Has the human girl caused problems for you?"

Chara stiffened up. _He's talking down to me... just like **she** used to. _"I'd advise you to keep your mouth shut, _Gaster_. Don't forget. _I'm_ the one who dragged you out of the Void. I can easily **throw you back in."**

Gaster was unafraid. He chuckled to himself slowly. "You're just the same as you were all those years ago. You wouldn't act on a threat like that. You never have. Oh, I remember the old days." He sighed. "You, Asriel... and _him_. You three were always inseperable. Had matching lockets even. _He_ didn't like you much even back then, you know. Asriel was his friend _first_. They had gone through _everything_ together. And to think... you had the nerve to _plan your death_ so that you would _die_ on his **birthday... taking his best friend with you and throwing him into a depressive state that he was still consumed in at the time of my death..."**

Chara's posture straightened. "Come on, cut it out with the pronoun game. It's not like there's anyone watching us."

"Oh, it wasn't like it was any old birthday," Gaster continued, ignoring her. "Nothing special about his fourteenth. The first birthday he had that wasn't marred by me and my wife's arguments, as they always were. Asriel gave him a gift on your behalf. Grillby, Alphys, Undyne, even Muffet showed up. And then... you died. News reached Asriel. He had to leave without telling him. Hours later, you and Asriel were dead."

"I'm aware."

"My sons were distraught, you know. Especially _him._ "

"Oh, fuck off!" Chara growled. "I know! I know! I know I hurt him even before the Genocide Timeline! You don't have to remind me!" she slunked down again. "I know mine and Asriel's deaths made for a crummy gift for him. He has to be over it by now, though."

"Trust me... he doesn't forget." Gaster turned on his heel and began to leave. "Let's go," he called to the hooded figure in the corner. They followed him briskly.

Chara shifted in the throne uncomfortably, already feeling the affects of being alone.

"Oh, by the way," Gaster called over his shoulder, just before he left. **"He still wears the gift you and Asriel gave him."**

 **"And what gift would that be?" Chara couldn't remember, honestly.**

 **Gaster's mouth curled into a devious grin. "The blue jacket with fur on the hood, of course."**

* * *

Sans let go of Flowey and Frisk's hands the moment their feet touched the sidewalk. He headed into the school, Frisk nearly having to run to keep up with him. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

He looked down at her concerned face, and realized he _was_ being aloof. "Nah. I'm fine." His usual smile crept back onto his face. "C'mon, let's go find the room this thing is at." Flowey caught up, only to be left behind again as Sans and Frisk kept walking. Frisk explained it was supposed to be in the teacher's lounge, according to Alex, who would be there.

When Frisk, Flowey, and Sans reached the teacher's lounge, it was nearly full. There weren't many kids, but they were all sitting by their parents and talking. Conveniently , there were three chairs by each other that the trio claimed almost immediately.

Almost all at once, the parents in the room looked at Sans, Flowey, and Frisk. Sans brushed it off as best he could and sat in the middle seat, propping his head up with his hand. "Hey. Don'tcha know it's rude to stare?"

And then, still nearly all at once, everyone returned back to their normal. _Jeez, it's like they're all robots or something..._

"I think the meeting usually starts when Linda gets here," Frisk spoke. "She's the PTA president. At least, according to Alex..." She took the seat to his right, while Flowey was on his left.

Flowey got up. "Come on, Frisk, let's go check out the snacks." They shoved their hands in their pockets and headed over to the big table. Frisk stood up too and headed over to the table with them. Sans wasn't really interested in the snacks. There was baby carrots, brownies, fudge, lemon bars, a few cupcakes, and chocolate-chip cookies. _For some reason, I'm really not in the mood for sweet stuff..._

And then, a woman with the signature can-I-speak-to-your-manager haircut with the tips bleached blonde (probably to 'spice up' her boring brown hair) nearly flew into the room. She probably realized she was late. She was herding two kids with her- a girl with mousy brown hair in a braid, and a boy with messy plain brown hair. "Hello, everyone!" she said cheerfully. She scanned the table, and then her eyes landed on Sans.

"Oh... hi." She furrowed her eyebrows in his direction. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton." Sans waved. "I'm here cuz Toriel couldn't make it."

"Ah. Toriel... Dreemurr. The monster."

"Yup."

Frisk and Flowey both came back to the table in time to watch the drama begin to unfold.

"Anyway..." the woman turned her back to the others in the room, writing the agenda down on the whiteboard. Something about vaccines, cheer tryouts, and then something unreadable. "Since there's someone new here, I think we should go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'll go first, I'm Linda Smith. I teach Pre-Algebra."

"I'm Alex," the girl with the braid said.

"Jimmy," said her brother.

"My name is Helen. I didn't bring Anna or Hunter tonight," said a blond woman with a bob-cut.

"I'm Gloria. I teach Social Studies," said a woman with ginger hair and freckles.

"I'm Greg, this is Luna," a man with short black hair said. He was leaned back in his chair, and his daughter was slouched in her chair, next to him. She had long, shiny, black hair.

There was a woman with a baby there. "I'm Valentina," she said, bouncing the kid gently. "I had to bring baby Seth with me, sorry..."

"I'm Frisk." She was smiling kindly as she swung her legs.

"As I said earlier, I'm Sans." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his blue jacket.

Flowey leaned back in their chair, slouching as a hand traveled up to play with the heart locket they were wearing. "My name is Flowey."

"Howard."

"Diane."

And then there were a few more parents, no more kids, though, who said their names. Sans didn't catch them, they somewhat blended together as it went back up to Linda. After everyone was done, Linda spoke again. "So, let's get to everything! First- the cheer tryouts!"

 _She's not going in order. Heh._

"Now, I know we'd all like to have our girls in the cheer team, but let's not forget that we need judges!" Linda was saying. "Ms. Henderson has asked for a little help in running the tryouts, since her two adult daughters will be unavailable. So, ladies, if any of you would like to volunteer to help her out..." she trailed off, prompting the women in the room to speak up.

Sans turned to look at Frisk. "You think you'd try out?" he asked her quietly, since the majority were now talking about Ms. Henderson.

Frisk nodded energetically. "Yes! I'd love to be a cheerleader."

Diane cocked her head, having overhead Frisk. "Frisk, don't be silly. Boys can't be cheerleaders."

Her words seemed to hit Frisk like a brick wall. Sans tensed up, hoping nobody had overheard nosy Diane, but his hopes meant nothing apparently, because Helen happened to overhear her and say, "Frisk wants to be a cheerleader? Isn't he a boy?"

Frisk clutched onto Sans's arm. _I know the feeling, kiddo,_ Sans thought. _Like bein' slapped in the face with a fish._

Then Linda caught on. "Also, boys can't try out," she said. It was obvious she wasn't trying to call Frisk out intentionally, yet still wanted to make it clear what side she stood on.

"Well, since Frisk isn't a boy, I think _she_ can try out just fine," said Sans. "She'd be a great cheerleader."

Linda scowled. "Sans, Frisk was born male. Meaning _he_ can't try out. Your daughter can, though," she said, gesturing to Flowey.

They squirmed in their seat. "I'm, uh... not a girl. Frisk _is,_ though."

She squinted at them. "Really? You don't look much like a boy."

"And 'Flowey' is a pretty feminine name," added Helen.

"I'm not a boy either. I don't care that my name is feminine, I picked it out before I knew," Flowey said in defense.

"You can't just not be a girl or a boy," said Howard. "You have to be one or the other. So, you're a girl then."

"No, I'm _not_ a girl!" Flowey said. They were nearly shouting now. "I'm nonbinary, Frisk is a girl!"

Sans decided it was time to step in.

"I think you should leave these kiddos alone. Frisk is a girl, Flowey isn't, and that's that. If we have to 'debate' about this anymore, I think Toriel and I would have quite the _bone to pick_ with you."

Linda furrowed her eyebrows. "Frisk-"

"I think male cheerleaders exist," said Gloria. "So Frisk still could try out even though he's male."

Sans squinted at her. _Well, I guess she wasn't as bad as the others._

Linda rolled her eyes. " _Fine._ Boys can try out, but don't expect to get on the team."

"You know, Flowey really should try out," said Helen to Gloria, not that quietly. _I think she's trying to be nice._ "She looks like she would be athletic, plus she has the whole 'cheerleader look'. Blonde hair, petite, green eyes. Of course, it's too bad she thinks she's a boy."

 _Okay. Not nice._

Flowey stiffened up. "I don't think I'm a _boy,_ " they snapped. "I _know_ that I am _nonbinary._ That means I don't identify as male _or_ female."

"Just because you want to be a special snowflake doesn't mean you have to pretend you aren't your own sex," said Diane, turning her nose up. "Besides, Helen and Gloria were talking. Eavesdropping is rude."

"You know what's _more_ rude?" Sans added. "Misgendering and invalidating two trans kids. Seriously. Can we just move on already?"

Linda took in all the information. Then she formed her own shitty opinion: "Transgender people are just delusional. Frisk is male, so he should be refferred to with 'he' and 'him'. Flowey, I'm not too sure about, but looks enough like a girl that I wouldn't have a problem thinking she's female. None of this 'they' and 'them' business- it isn't even grammatically correct."

The room went completely silent, except for the sound of Sans tapping his fingers on the tabletop. He scanned the room briefly. "Kids, I think you might want to step out for a sec."

None of the kids in the room hesitated- all of them could probably feel the tension in the room. Sans caught a glimpse at Flowey and Frisk as they left, and both of them were pretty shell-shocked. Flowey was half-stuttering out arguements as Frisk dragged them out.

"I asked multiple times to just... cut it out and move on," Sans began. "We have other stuff to talk about here. Better stuff than debating the genders of Toriel's kids."

The room was still silent. Helen opened her mouth. Then she closed it.

"What else is on the agenda?" asked Sans. "Vaccines and something else. Well, to save on time, the current vaccine policy is perfectly fine in my opinion. I don't care much about the last thing, I'm probably taking the kids home right after this."

Sans took a deep breath. "Did you see their faces when they were leaving? They were shoked. Embarrassed. Uncomfortable. Because you all-" Sans gestured around the room. "Don't know how to show basic human decency and _not_ hurt two transgender kids. You don't know what either of them have been through. You don't know _anything_ about them. All you know is their genders don't match up with their physical sexes."

The room was silent again, with the only exception being the tapping of Sans's fingers.

Greg opened his fat mouth. " _Please._ All it shows is that the goat lady does a shitty job raising those two." He raised his hand in ephmasis and his daughter flinched.

 _He did not just insult Toriel._

 _He totally fucking did._

"...Huh. Moving to insulting the mom now, are we?" Sans's voice was bitter. "Frisk told Toriel and I that she knew she was a girl _years_ before she lived with Toriel. Flowey was only adopted yesterday. There is absolutely _nothing_ Toriel has done wrong in her parenting. In fact, she's a great parent, unlike you."

Sans stood up, giving the entire table a deathly glare. "I hope you're happy with yourselves."

Then he stormed out of the room, tossing one last comment over his shoulder after seeing the state of the duo in the hall. "You just made some kids cry."

* * *

Sans had been right about the crying (how he knew, not being in the room, Flowey would never know). Frisk looked like she was on the verge of tears, and she was clutching onto him for dear life. Flowey tried to shrug it off, but being talked to like that really, really bothered them.

It was late by the time they got home. Frisk went straight to bed, while Flowey took a quick shower and milled around a bit before they went to go to bed.

When they finally crawled into bed, their hair still damp, the first thing they thought was that Toriel had forgotten a pair of her reading glasses in the Underground. _Why did I remember that?_ they wondered. It took a while before the fuzziness of the lit hall tipped them off. _Oh, right. I need glasses._

As the hall light turned off and Undyne went to bed (at least, it was most likely her), they pondered on those reading glasses. _Maybe they'd help a bit. I could hardly read anything today._

The time was 9:23. _I'll go at 25._

They slipped out when the time came and tiptoed down to the kitchen. They were going to have to use the back door, since it wasn't as loud as the front. As they rounded the corner, suddenly their least favorite person was there.

"Hey. Whatcha doin'?"

Flowey groaned. "Sans, let me go."

"Why should I?" the skeleton challenged. "I don't trust you. Who knows what you'll do?" he said, cocking his head to the side.

"I forgot something in the Underground," they bluffed.

"Get it in the morning, then. You aren't leaving in the middle of the night. Go to sleep, Flowey," said Sans. As his words came, his tone came softer. Then he headed upstairs, beckoning the blond to follow.

Flowey nearly stomped their foot on the ground. It took all their willpower to not stomp up the stairs, either. After slipping back under the covers and curling up to get some warmth, they calmed down a little. Frisk looked a bit upset, even in her sleep. Flowey rolled over.

 _The Underground... God, I never want to think about that place ever again._ They shuddered. _Five days without food, my ass. I've been starving a lot more than that. I can't even count how many nights I spent in tears because the hunger was so fucking bad. I'd have to drag myself to the sink and fill up on water just to make the pain stop..._

 _Pain..._

 _Pain like... a gnawing feeling that just eats away._

 _Pain like... a stabbing in your stomach that twists in up into knots so tight it gets rid of your appetite._

 _Pain like... the feeling in my chest right now._

 _Wait, what?_

Flowey gasped suddenly, clutching their chest as the tearing feeling came. They let out a strangled, soft cry as they slammed their hand over their mouth to muffle any sounds.

The pain was _terrible-_ like their very being was being ripped in two. _What's happening to me?!_

After an excrutiating, silent minute, the pain passed, and then they passed right out, face pressed into their pillow, only one thought on their mind. _What the hell was that?_

* * *

 **Oh, hi! A couple things before I go:**

 **I chose for Sans to leave the PTA meeting early because I wanted to change things up a little from most fanfics. Plus, Sans was already feeling somewhat overwhelmed beforehand, and he hasn't really had to do something like this before because the Underground is way more accepting of LGBT+ than the human world.**

 **Next chapter, we will probably see some stuff for Frisk's backstory and the probable cause of Flowey's sudden pain.**

 **Also, if this seems incoherent, it's probably because this is mostly being written at 1:15 AM.**

 **As always, please drop a review if there's anything you'd like to say! I love getting reviews, and they help with the production of chapters quite a bit!**


	7. Cursed Memories

**There's something I want to say real quick before I start chapter 7:**

 **Not all the PTA meetings are going to be like Chapter 6's. That one ended with Sans walking out because he didn't know what to do and he didn't want to be in a room full of people like that. Next time, he won't walk out.**

 **Starting Her Horror and planning on more work towards Difference, I just have to say that updates might slow from my usual once-a-week (usually Sundays). Plus, I'm going to be somewhere with no internet from the 22nd to the 26th, so we probably won't get an update for that time (I'll probably use that time for Difference or Her Horror, possibly for more future planning). I'm writing this AN at midnight on the 16th, so just... be aware that some of this will be** **incoherent** **most likely.**

* * *

 _His tiny fists pounded at the door. No yells escaped from his mouth, as always. On the door, he tapped urgently._

 _When his sister finally opened it, she pulled him into a tight hug and dragged him into the room. "They're fighting again, huh?" she murmured._

 _He nodded against her and held on tighter. She shut the door quietly and took him over to the bed with a dark green blanket on it. She sat down and then pulled him up with her onto the bed. On the other bed, there was a lump of blankets and clothes._

 _There was a loud slam in the living room, causing the lump of blankets to stir with a small yelp. A girl just a year older than he was poked her head out. "What's going on?" she murmured._

 _"Go back to sleep, Aliza," his sister said calmly. "Everything's okay."_

 _"Easy for you to say. You've got Frisk on your lap. You gotta calm him down, don'tcha?" she said, ending with a yawn. Frisk felt his sister stiffen. "You can't be strong all the time, Tanya." Aliza was only seven to Tanya's eleven, but she understood things a lot better than either Tanya or Frisk did._

 _Loud footsteps thudded down the hall, approaching the bedroom. Aliza hid back underneath the covers as Frisk's mother burst through the door. The force of the doorknob hitting the wall caused the indent that was already there to deepen. The woman scanned the room with bloodshot eyes. "Daddy's out," she said, almost in a whisper._

 _She threw her beer bottle as hard as she could at Tanya's head, making her duck. The bottle smashed on the wall next to her. "He ain't never comin' back, and it's all_ your _fault!" she screamed. "Christopher, get away from her!"_

 _Her screaming was hurting him. He got off the bed obideintly and went across the room. He folded his hands in front of his chest and stood against the wall motionlessly. "Out of the room, you little whore," his mother growled. It was hard to tell who she was talking to at first, but seeing Tanya start to move off the bed made him realize who his mother was talking about._

 _The moment the two of them left the room, Frisk bolted to his bed, where Aliza was in the blankets. He shook the lump until she poked her head out of the bundle again, meeting his tearful eyes with her disturbed. "What the hell happened?!" she whisper-yelled. Frisk raised his hands for sign language, and Aliza lowered them. "Don't answer that."_

 _From the kitchen, they could hear Tanya's pitiful yelps and whimpers as Mother hit her and screamed at her. Aliza pulled Frisk close to her chest and covered his ears so he wouldn't have to hear._

 _"It's gonna be okay... Tanya's tough, she can take it," said Aliza. Her voice broke as she said it._

 _Frisk started crying for real now, burying his face in Aliza's chest as she pulled him tighter. He was terrified of what could happen if Mother walked back in the room, but he let himself be comforted for the moment._

 _Because he had a gut feeling that everything would get a whole lot worse from here on out..._

* * *

Frisk awoke with a start. The alarm clock read 9:48 AM. She nearly bolted out of bed before remembering the day. _It's Saturday..._

 _Four days since our first PTA meeting..._

She gently slipped out of the bed, letting Flowey rest quietly. She dragged herself over to the closet, rooting around for something to wear. She eventually settled on black leggings and a dark purple T-shirt. After she got dressed, she checked her reflection. She brushed her hair quickly and set the brush down slowly. Then she realized she was hungry, so she went downstairs to go get some food.

Everyone else still seemed to be asleep, except for maybe Papyrus; but if he _was_ up, he wasn't home. Frisk decided to just go for cereal, so she got the milk from the fridge, bowl from the cupboard, spoon from the drawer, and Peanut-Butter Crunch from the other cupboard.

She ate in silence, her mind falling half-asleep. _I should probably go play some video games or something after this._

There was a hairtie on the kitchen table, so she took it and tied her hair into a low, curly ponytail to keep it from falling in her face or getting in the bowl. Then Frisk took the bowl with the remainder of her cereal into the living room and turned on the PS4. _I wanna work on my Minecraft city world..._

After a few minutes of playing Minecraft in her comfortable outfit, lounged on the couch and her food forgotten, she heard the creaking of the floorboards behind her and a yawn. "Morning, Frisk..." she heard Flowey mumble behind her.

"Good morning, you little blond gremlin." She leaned over with a smirk and ruffled their hair as they sat down next to her. "Be a dear and hold this for me. I gotta take my bowl in the kicthen before I forget." Frisk handed over the controller and picked up the bowl, starting to head into the kitchen.

As she walked down the hall, her image in the large mirror that was hanging there caught her eye. She ducked into the kitchen and set down her bowl before checking her reflection. Something seemed extremely familiar about the way she looked...

With a pang, she realized that the way she looked right now...

Was exactly the way _she_ used to look.

"Hey, can I play?" Flowey called from the living room. "This world looks cool."

Forcing a smile, Frisk walked back into the room. "Get your own controller. Besides, don't you have a mall-date with your new friends later today?" she teased.

"Oh, fuck, I totally do. We're supposed to meet up at eleven, though, so fuck off."

"Why do you say 'fuck' so much?"

"Because fuck you, that's why."

"Understandable, have a nice day."

* * *

Flowey walked out of the house wearing a green knit sweater, the gold locket, a black skirt (length: two inches above the knee), and combat boots. Sans followed them. "Are ya sure you don't want me to give you a shortcut to the mall?" He didn't seem to care either way.

" _Yes,_ I'm sure. Sadie and Max are going to walk me. See, there they are!" Flowey pointed off in the distance at the approaching duo. The red ribbon they were using to tie back their hair brushed against their neck as they ran towards their friends.

Once they'd reached the other blonde and the noirette, they kept walking with them nonchalantly. "Hey. What's up, you two?"

"We still have to pick up Julia and Ashton," said Sadie. "Ashton's mom is driving us."

"Got it."

The trek to Julia's house was perilous, meaning that Sadie chose that day to wear ankle boots with a heel and was constantly stumbling as she tried to walk. Once they arrived, Max screamed, "HEY! GET IN LOSER, WE'RE GOING SHOPPING!"

"That sounds like a reference..." Flowey mumbled.

"Mean Girls," Sadie answered.

"Ah. Another movie I have not seen."

"We need to watch it as a group, it's official."

Max shoved his hands in his pockets as Julia ran outside, her hair a mess. "Hello, you beautiful thots!"

"Ah. Dank meme," Max noted.

"Let's get going, shall we?" Sadie said, stumbling in her heels again. She balanced herself by slinging an arm around Max and Julia's shoulders.

"I just off the phone with Ashton. He's currently draped across his porch because he wants to be painted like one of your French girls," said Julia.

"You're serious?" Max looked at her in surprise. "Hey, wait, Sade, we have to get Flowey in on this chain of shoulders too."

"They're too small!" Sadie exclaimed. "I'd probably wind up crushing them."

Flowey rolled their eyes. "I'm not as fragile as you guys think I am."

"You're still _tiny,_ " Julia said. Even so, she slung her arm over Flowey's shoulders, since she was the closest in size to them. "There. Now you're included."

As the group walked down the road, Flowey heard a call. "Yo! It's me! Your favorite trash panda!" They looked over, and sure enough, Ashton was laying seductively on his porch. "Mom! They're here!" the ginger boy yelled inside the house.

A woman Flowey recognized from the PTA meeting (Gloria) rushed outside, holding her sunglasses and car keys. Sadie steered the group down the driveway, still stumbling. Opening the door, Ashton flung himself into the passenger seat, leaving the other four to scramble for spots inside the minivan.

The ride wasn't that long.

"You kids have fun, okay? Call me when you want to be picked up, Ashton!" Gloria called.

"Will do!" he hollered, leaping out of the car. "Let's go, guys!"

Everyone else scrambled out of the minivan (especially Sadie, who was still cursing her heels). Then they all stood next to each other and stared up at the mall together. _It didn't look this big when I went with Frisk,_ Flowey noted.

"Yeah!" Julia whooped. "Let's go raid Hot Topic and FYE!"

"YEAH!"

And then they charged for the doors. Flowey was the first to reach them, since they happened to be faster than the others. Sadie was obviously last, but the rest didn't really wait around for her, even though she was yelling, "Hey! Wait up!"

Flowey slowed to a stop a few yards into the mall, Julia and Max stopping behind them. Ashton stopped behind Max, and then Sadie trudged up. "Let's go do stuff, shall we?" Julia teased.

* * *

A couple of hours later, after some shopping and memes, the group decided unanimously that it was time for lunch. Julia and Flowey were dumped at the table together with their current (albeit, few) bags while the other three got the food.

Julia leaned across the table. "Hey. How ya doin'?" she whispered loudly.

Flowey let out a small, airy laugh. "What are you even doing?"

"I am seducing you."

"Good luck with that." Flowey leaned back in their seat, raising their eyebrows.

"Ah! You are immune to my charms! How could this be?!" Julia mock-wailed.

"I bet Max wouldn't be. He crushes on everything he sees," Flowey joked.

"You're actually not wrong," she said. Her face was slightly flushed at the idea of flirting with Max. "Besides, his current crush is somebody else. I'm not even sure it's one of his 'disaster bi' crushes either, he loves to talk about them."

"Is it someone like me or Sam, or is it just someone you don't want to reveal the identity of?" they asked. _I could see Max liking that Sam kid. He said they've been friends since forever._

"Actually... it's you. Max likes you," Julia said sheepishly.

"What?!" Flowey half-screeched. "How- How? I'm literally the worst person I know!" they exclaimed, trying to ignore the burning in their cheeks.

Julia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Please. I know worse people than you. What could you have even done that's so bad?"

 _She has absolutely no idea what she just said._ "How about resetting the timeline a thousand times just because you were bored?" they hissed. "Or killing everyone over and over just to see what would happen. Or betraying everyone over and over, or helping everyone over and over, or destroying everyone over and over, or..." they trailed off finally. Flowey rested their elbows on the table, covering their face with their eyes. "The memories taunt me every _fucking_ day," they said. Tears started to burn their eyes. "I don't get how anybody could _care_ about someone like _me._ "

Dead silence. A few moments later, they felt Julia's soft hand touch their wrist. "Is... is that where all the scars came from?" she asked softly. "Because of the guilt?"

"...Yeah. You could say that."

There was silence, but not an awkward one, as the two sat there. Flowey wasn't sure how she knew about the scars. "...How did you know about my scars? I always wear long sleeves."

"Yeah, but you also wear skirts and dresses without leggings," she reminded. "Plus, I... saw your sleeve ride up in Computers. Figured it out from there..." _Oh, right. Leg scars._

Flowey put their head down on the table. "I just... don't get it... How could anybody care about me?"

Julia was silent for a moment. "Well, people don't just know all the stuff you've done. Besides, did you _actually_ kill anybody who's dead right now?"

"Well... no..." Flowey shifted.

"There you go. Everything's gonna be okay, Flows."

"How can you be so sure?"

"...'cuz I've been through some shit too..." she said softly. "And sitting around feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to help."

"You're right," they sighed.

"See? That's better. All you gotta do is let out your feelings sometimes," said Julia. "You'll be fine. I promise."

Flowey looked up at her. "Guess the only thing to do is promise that it'll all be fine for you, too."

"Huh?"

"You said you've been through some stuff," Flowey said. "I believe that. That's another way you remind me of Sans- you're both hiding your pain with jokes and lies. You're depressed, aren't you?"

Julia tapped her fingers on the table. "...how did you know?" She was somber, slouched in her chair.

"Like I said, I know someone just like you. Plus, when you're depressed, it's a bit easier to pick up on it in others," Flowey pointed out. "So... yeah."

"Yeah," she responded.

And just like that, there was an unspoken bond between the two of them. A bond that, yet had only just begun, but would continue on for years to come.

* * *

 **WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**

 **I am SO fuCKING HAPPY!**

 **It's the night of the 19th right now, I have an essay due in 14 hours and have barely done it, I'm tired as SHIT, but that all doesn't matter because I OVERCAME THE CHAPTER 7 CURSE!**

 **(For WiggleTron's review: Thanks, and yeah, everyone was horrible. Glad to see I wrote them well, so they'd be hated!)**


	8. His Secrets Come Spilling Out

**Hi again! This chapter is most likely going to be written while I'm away from the internet, so bear with me, okay?**

 **Also, my name change will take place AFTER CHAPTER 10 has been put up.**

 **EDIT: Abuse and suicide tw, and happy new year (wow, so happy)**

* * *

Two weeks after Flowey went to the mall with their friends, it was late Saturday night. Actually, it was 1 in the morning, because Frisk couldn't fucking _sleep_. She rolled over in the dark, scanning the bed next to her for her sibling's form. Of course, they were there, but something...

...was wrong.

 _They're having another nightmare._

Frisk pulled them close again, like she usually did. This time, though it didn't seem to do much to help. Flowey thrashed in her arms, getting only more aggressive. "Hey!" Frisk whispered loudly. "Flowey!"

She shook them. "Wake up!"

Flowey eventually woke, then clung onto Frisk with wide green eyes and little whimpers and sobs, just as they did before, only now they were awake. "Holy shit..." they whispered. "I thought... you... Chara... oh, god..."

"Shh... it's okay," Frisk assured. "Come on, I'll turn the lights on and we can talk..."

She got up to turn on the lamp while they slipped out from under the covers and sat on top of them, their knees by their face.

And talk they did. They talked about a ton of different things, from Luna's antisocial behavior to annoying PTA parents to Max's dorkiness to when Elliot was finally going to ask Anna Kessler out.

However... The image of Flowey's fear-stricken eyes was still ingrained in her vision. Just the thought of how helpless and terrified they'd looked sent shivers down her spine. So now, Frisk and Flowey sat on the bed together, talking about random things to stay awake.

"Hey, Frisk?" Flowey suddenly asked. "I just realized, I, uh... never showed you what my SOUL looks like. Wanna see?"

Frisk nearly lept up. "Yes!"

"Whoa, you're eager," Flowey quipped. "Here goes nothing."

They lowered their legs to a criss-cross position and then seemed to concentrate for a moment before their SOUL emerged from their chest. It's base color was the light gray of the monster soul, but it swirled with the colors of Loyalty, Bravery, Justice, Kindness, Patience, Integrity, and Perserverance. It also had a red outer rim for the DETERMINATION they possessed. But, most noticeably, was the crack down the middle.

"What is that?!" Frisk exclaimed. "What happened to you?!"

"Shh! I'm fine!" they said harshly. "The crack isn't important, it's been there for three months. Jeez, if I knew you were going to react badly to seeing my cool-ass SOUL, I wouldn't have shown it to you..." they sighed. "I need a drink."

"Wait! Flowey!" Frisk called after them. "Ugh... dang it..." She had no choice but to follow them. To follow them downstairs for their drink.

She nearly tripped down the stairs, because they were being really fast for some reason. The time on the microwave was blinking, so she guessed the power must have gone out at some point.

Flowey got their water from the pitcher in the fridge and put it back, leaning against the counter as they drank. "You're weird," they said after.

"How?"

"You followed me. For no reason."

"Well..." Frisk flopped her hands to her sides. "Let's keep talking."

"About what?"

"Uh..." _I can see all their scars, but that's not a good topic... Wait, I got it._ "How did you get your human form?"

"Chara came along," they responded. "About a week after you left. She had magic, and she wanted to try something. She gave me a SOUL that was based on Asriel's with bits of the SOULs of the six humans that fell between you and Chara."

Frisk nodded. "That's interesting. Did you..." she trailed off. "...Know any of the kids that fell?"

* * *

 _Jason gently held her hand in the warm light. "Don't let Luke get to you, okay?" he said softly. "He's just mad because he's a teenager, yaknow?"_

 _Frisk laughed quietly and made a little hum of agreement. Twilight was setting in, and the sun was nearly down, but the duo stayed there. They were the only people each other had. Jason was an orphan, and she a 'problem child' in the system after something happened with her biological mother._

 _She made the sign for 'I love you' against his hand. He knew what it meant. She'd taught him sign language as soon as possible, so he could tell what she was trying to say. Frisk hated to speak, but he had heard her a few times._

 _Her arms were wrapped in bandages, and there was red seeping through. The lady in charge of the group home didn't care too much about what the kids were up to, the other kids hated Frisk, and Jason had asked her to stop many times, many, many, but she just_ couldn't _._

 _She loved the way his sleek light blond hair fell neatly, and the way it looked in the light. His blue eyes enchanted her; she could look into them for years._

 _He was perfect._

* * *

"I was created after the Patient one fell. There had to be DETERMINATION to extract and put into me, right?" Flowey ended their sentence with a short laugh. "I never knew her, but I knew the rest. Three of 'em fell on accident, the other two didn't. It's a rumor the first one wasn't accidental either."

"And, uh... did you ever see a guy with blond hair and blue eyes? Wore a cowboy hat?" she asked.

"Yeah. He made it to Asgore, somehow. I didn't think he would, but I guess he had a reason to get out. No offense or anything, but he was fun to mess with."

Frisk sputtered. "No offense? H-How would you know I knew him?"

"Why would you ask about him if you didn't know him? Besides, he talked about you a lot, back when I tried to be his friend."

She was indeed shaken. They didn't seem to pay it any mind, setting their now-empty glass on the counter. "Yeah. The girl he had to go back to, because the other kids would tear you apart. You were traumatized from an abusive home before CPS rolled in and he was the only friend you had. He was an orphan. You kept getting bounced around until you landed in the same group home as him."

Flowey turned and stared right into her eyes. "And he was the only one to die at Asgore's hands. Or at least, that's what I heard. It was either Madjik, Knight Knight, or Asgore. People used to say Asgore was the only one who killed a human, but I knew it wasn't true when I saw Lesser Dog take out that Thomas kid..." they trailed off. "I just know he died either in the CORE or in New Home."

"You have Asriel's memories, right?" Frisk asked sharply. "Can you tell me anything about what it was like with Chara?"

"Whoa. Intense conversation change," Flowey remarked. "Of course I do. I _was_ Asriel. Chara was quiet. She walked with a limp because of a leg injury. She couldn't keep up with me or Sans or Undyne or Alphys, 'cuz she couldn't run."

 _Sans, Undyne, and Alphys?_ "I didn't know you grew up with those three."

"Yeah. Sans didn't have the best home life, Undyne's parents were dead, and Alphys and her sister didn't get along, so they spent a lot of time with us. I was born in 1997, Sans and Chara were born in 1996. I think Undyne and Alphys were both born in 1995."

"Alphys just turned 23..." Frisk murmured. _What they're saying is checking out... I know Undyne and Alphys are the same age..._

"I remember Muffet used to be there sometimes too, but she was the oldest... three years older than Sans and Chara." Flowey shrugged noncommittally. "Chara's birthday was November 14th. She would have turned 14 the year she died. 2010. She'd be 21 now. 9 months younger than Sans, her parents probably got it on on Valentine's Day or something. Speaking of parents, she didn't like to talk about them, but she did say her dad died when she was little. She wouldn't talk about her mom."

Frisk leaned against the other counter and faced them. "So she didn't fall on accident?"

"Nope. I knew she didn't. Hey, funny story, this is completely unrelated to Chara, but Sans's birthday is February 29th."

"What's so different about February 29th?"

"Think about it."

She actually had to think about it for a moment before she realized it. " _Oh_. Leap day!"

"Yeah! We teased him about that a _lot.._. My birthday used to be February 20th, so I was literally a whole year younger than him... There would always be about a week where we'd technically be the same age. Oh, wait, shit!" they suddenly yelled. "His birthday actually _was_ related to Chara!"

"How?" Frisk furrowed her eyebrows.

"We..." Flowey scratched the back of their head. "...kind of... died... the day Sans was celebrating his 14th. Kinda put a damper on his teenage years. Home life got shittier, at least it seemed that way to me when I came back as a flower. His dad died and nobody seemed to remember him except for me, him, Papyrus, his mom, and Alphys. Asgore might remember, though. He was involved in the whole incident, plus he knew Gaster before it happened (Yes, Sans is Gaster's son, Frisk). Y'see, people suspected the mom. They thought it was suspicious she was the last one seen with him. But then everyone's memories went away because I decided to RELOAD and try to stop it- for some reason, I thought I could do something that would change it. Then everyone just forgot." They sighed after having talked so long.

"...Woah. Do you know if she did it?" Frisk asked.

Flowey didn't say anything.

"I mean, I heard his followers say he fell into his creation... so he was pushed or something?"

"...Yeah. Anyway, I feel like I've told you enough. Let's just go back upstairs or something."

"Wait." Frisk stopped them before they left. "You have to tell Sans that you're Asriel."

"...What? Why would I do that?" They scrunched up their face in confusion. "He doesn't know, and he doesn't need to."

"Yes, he _does_. Maybe it would make him be less hostile to you."

" _No!_ I don't need to be friends with him again! When I died, we were _not_ on the best terms and he _hates_ me. I am not telling hi-"

 _CRASH_

Frisk flinched at the sudden sound of shattering glass. She was about to scold whoever it was before she turned her head to see the figure standing in the hallway. The small, skeletal figure, his hand still grasping an invisible glass. Which was now shattered on the floor.

"How much of that did you hear?!" Flowey's accusing tone cut through the tense air.

His answer was soft, sounding like the most betrayed person in the world. "Enough."

Frisk started, "Sans-"

"I have to go." He turned roughly on his heel and bolted to the sliding back door. Frisk was frozen in place as he threw it open and then disappeared in the night.

Flowey moved first, dashing forward and then promptly falling on the glass shards. They made a quick yelp from the pain, but before she could move to help them, they yelled, "Go! I'll be fine, you go find him!"

Frisk hardly did need a second opinion. She navigated her way through the shards on the floor quickly, then darted out of the still-open sliding door, chasing after him as fast as she could.

* * *

She had managed to chase him all the way to the woods behind the house, the woods leading to the mountain. They were illuminated with the light of the half-moon, giving everything a spooky quality. She was surprised that he'd managed to keep running, since he got tired so easily, but she supposed it was the shock. She was still gaining on him, and he was slowing. Then she finally tackled him to the ground.

Frisk heard him grunt as he hit the dirt hard under her. She felt her SOUL color change as he threw her into a tree with his magic. Then he tried to stand, but to no avail. She jumped on him again and forced him to face her. "SANS! Snap out of it!"

He threw her off again, but he didn't even try to stand again. He slumped against a different tree, his sockets filling with tears he wouldn't dare let fall. "Fuck off!" he growled. "Why the hell did you follow me?"

"Because I was _worried_!" Frisk sat down on the ground, facing him. "You're always so calm, what set you off?"

"I don't know, maybe it was the person who's caused me a ton of stress and heartbreak confessing to be my dead best friend!" he snapped. _Best friend?!_

"Asriel was your best friend?" Frisk asked. "They didn't say anything about that!"

"Flowey lies all the time! Get used to it! We've known each other since he was _four years old._ Or they, or _whatever!_ " Sans's voice kept breaking as he spoke, his pitch rising. "You can't _fucking_ trust them! They were there the WHOLE time and they never did ANYTHING to help, in ANY TIMELINE. I can remember every one of their resets, and they NEVER HELPED."

"Never helped? With wh- oh! That..." Frisk gasped. _The bad home life thing..._

"Yeah, they mentioned it like it was _nothing_ , didn't they?" He covered his eyes for a moment, and then there were no more tears in his sockets. "It definitely _wasn't._ Do you know what it's like to look for your mom because you have to ask her something, and then you see her push your dad into the CORE? Do you know what it's like to have to stay quiet about what you saw, because you're terrified she's going to hurt you too?! Do you know what it's like for everything to go back to the day it happened, but nobody remembers he ever _existed_ because of that _stupid fucking flower?!_ "

Frisk was silent. _Beer bottles smashing on skin, glass scars-_

"Do you know what it's like for her to hurt you anyway, because you can't live up to her standards?! Because she can't accept you for the person you are? Because you're an 'ungrateful brat' who didn't 'appreciate' anything she'd ever done?! Because you were a liar or a whore or an idiot or lazy or whatever new insult she decided to call you. Because my dad's death was MY fault, not hers, apparently!" He covered his face again and shook with silent sobs. "Because I couldn't do ANYTHING right. Because I was supposed to be perfect, I wasn't supposed to date anyone or even have any feelings at ALL, I had to have straight-As, I had to do whatever she wanted me to, she was allowed to blow up at anything and I couldn't show any emotion _or else_ , she wouldn't even _feed_ me and Paps half the time because she 'was just trying to teach us how to be good' or some bullshit, or she couldn't be bothered, or WHATEVER excuse!"

"She HATED me, she hated Papyrus, she hated Alphys, she hated Muffet, she hated Asriel, she hated Undyne, she hated ALL my friends because she didn't think they were good role models for me and Pap, she didn't want me to have anybody to talk to except for HER and she hated talking to me on friendly terms. Living with her was absolute hell and I can't even remember most of it because the memories are just-" His speech fell into a completely incoherent babbling as tears slipped down his cheeks uncontrollably.

He took a big shuddery breath before he spoke again. "She tried to _kill_ my brother and Alphys, and we were arguing, and suddenly there she goes too, into the CORE. And I was just sitting there numb until Alphys grabbed my arm and dragged me back to New Home, because Undyne and Muffet were waiting for us at our apartment. I hardly said anything to anyone, I just went to my room because I wanted to sleep, I took some pills and probably too much so I knew I was going to die, I wrote a note and put it on the nightstand and I can't even remember what it said, and then I laid down and passed out. Then everything started to hurt and I woke up because a blue girl with red hair was busting down my door, I couldn't even recognize her, and she saw the fucking note and she picked me up and ran out of the apartment and everyone was confused and scared and then I wake up again and I'm in the hospital. Alive."

 _Oh my god..._

"And then the second they decide I can go, after forcing me into the psych ward and asking me if I'd try it again, it's been two days at least but I couldn't tell, I go to Snowdin because that's where I didn't know anybody but there was a bridge over a really high cliff there, so I stand at the edge and try to muster up to courage to really disappear, so nobody knows where I went, and then I hear a voice behind me and it's a guy made of fire. He manages to talk me down and I go to his bar with him, and I recognize him from school and I know who he is and then Alphys and Papyrus and Undyne and Muffet find me there, talking to him about whatever to get my mind off what I just tried to do."

And then he let out one last shuddery sob as his entire body trembled. Frisk leaned forward and hugged him softly, in total silence. It took him a few minutes to get all the tears out of his system before he tiredly shook her off and stood. "...Let's go home..." He was slouching. She stood and took his hand, and then they were back in the backyard, staring at the open back door.

Without words, Frisk let go of his hand, and they walked through the back door, Sans leading. In the kitchen, Undyne and Papyrus were both awakened by what had happened (both of their rooms were on the same floor as the kitchen), and were both attempting to help Flowey with the glass cuts. The glass was already cleaned up, and then a yellow lizard head emerged from behind the corner with bandages. _Alphys is awake too..._

"What happened." Undyne didn't even sound like she was asking, she just sounded _angry_. "The kid's upset, and you two both disappeared. They wouldn't tell us anything other than 'Sans heard something and ran off and Frisk chased after him'."

Flowey didn't even look upset, just _tired_. Alphys came over with the bandages, and they waved off her attempts to help and just did it themself. They were sitting on the stool by the island counter, elbow resting on the countertop. They were pretty cut up from the glass, not to mention some of the shards had reopened healing wounds. The napkins and paper towels they'd used to formerly stop the blood flow were discarded.

Sans didn't say anything, until finally, muttering, "I'm fine. It's fine. Let's just forget about this, okay? I'm gonna go back to sleep..." He turned sharply and walked down the hall, turning into his and Papyrus' shared room. Papyrus followed quickly after him, probably to try and ask a question before he fell asleep.

"Frisk? You got anything to say?" Undyne asked.

"Something Flowey said triggered some bad memories with Sans," Frisk explained quietly. Then she breezed past Undyne, and Alphys (ignoring her little "w-wait!") and going up the stairs to her own room. There, she collapsed into bed and fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

* * *

 **So, yeah. I understand that when Sans is talking about his past, it might be hard to read because he's just rambling, but I think you'll be able to pick up the gist of it. This chapter got pretty long, I wasn't expecting that...**

 **My tumblr is ask-the-rewrite-au if you guys want to check it out. I reccomend it, one of my friends submitted a pretty cool piece of art that you guys should see. As I'm writing this, it's 1:47 AM, so bear with me if there's any spelling or grammar mistakes. I'll reread in the morning and replace any major errors, but nothing's really triggering the spellcheck as of right now, soooooo...**

 **For the Guest "Random Person", Flowey didn't mention that because they're technically not a flower anymore, plus this point may not have worked out because whenever I talk to my grandpa about this story, I keep having to explain Flowey being nonbinary in this story (whenever I mention this story and Flowey to him, he always calls Flowey a she for some reason). I've tried to explain things, but he's like 'Flowers are feminine and I saw Flowey in the game (he saw me playing Undertale on my Switch, which was hooked up to the TV and it was the scene where Flowey absorbs the SOULs to become Omega Flowey) so Flowey is a girl'. Like,,,,, no.**

 **He's either dumb or playing a joke on me. I can't tell which.**

 **Anyway, back to what I was saying, I don't think they'd want to say they're really a flower, because that would give the PTA more reason to write them off as a crazy, special-snowflake type. Or, if they proved they were a flower, would make the PTA think they're a 'freak' (monster) and give the PTA another reason to hate them.**

 **As always, review if you want to say anything. Reviews help with my motivation a lot!**

 **(This chapter is nearly 4,000 words by the way)**


	9. Chara's Interlude

**Hey, guys chapter 9 broke so I'm copying and pasting it below. then i'll delete it or something.**

* * *

 **Whaddup, Chapter 7 of my FNaF fic is crying but here we are. For that one Guest, Nicole won't be formally introduced for a few chapters (somewhere between 11-14?), but she WILL actually be seen in this chapter (only a flashback, though).**

 **TW for abuse. Seriously. Big TW. All of the flashbacks are abuse.**

* * *

A purple cloak fluttered around their ankles as they walked through the throne room. Their worn brown boots made no noise on the ground as they reached the room where the barrier used to be. As they looked into the moonlight, a delicate skeletal hand extended and pulled back their hood, exposing a cracked skull and dull sockets.

"Finally," they spoke. "It won't be long now... Brother will keep things in order, I will seek out my nephews..." A smile crept onto their face as they unhooked the clasp on their cloak and let it blow in the wind, yet did not let it fall. A dark purple turtleneck and plain black jeans were exposed. "It's time to go, Arial."

* * *

 _Her arm was burning, but she paid it no mind as she served the meal. **He** stared her down. **He** was suppossed to be her father. **He** was not; her father had been a kind and caring man. This man was disgusting._

 _She retreated to the family room. **He** seemed to find something wrong with the meal and charged after her. She was used to it by now. She didn't even fight back as **he** grabbed her burned arm and jerked her towards **him**. She had learned to not fight back many mealtimes ago. After all, since when was she the one in control?_

 _ **He** shoved her against the wall harshly, screaming obscenities and probably some insults. She'd started to tune out what **he** said a long time ago, it was all the same anyways. She was a mistake, an idiot, a whore, she never should have been born, **he** wanted her dead and so did everyone else. She knew it was all true. She knew the meaning._

 _ **He** smacked her roughly, pushing her to the ground. Then came being slung over **his** shoulder and carried her up to her hellhole of a room. There was no door, only a mattress for a bed, and all the furniture was destroyed from **him** either hitting it in his rage or hitting her against it. **He** dropped her on her stomach on the mattress and ordered her to take off her shirt. She did so numbly, hearing the familiar sound of **him** taking off **his** belt. What would it be this time? Using her, as though she were a doll or a toy, and tossing her aside again when she broke? Or just pain on her back?_

 _It was just simply the belt on her back this time, as it normally was for a bad meal. She was stupid to think it could be the other possiblity. Every strike made her twitch, but she was used to the pain._

 _Then the front door opened and **her** voice drifted through. "Da-a-arling~! I'm home!" **she** called. **He** stopped for a moment, then barked for her to put her shirt back on and then **he** redid **his** belt. She laid limply on the mattress, hearing the couple speak and then argue, **he** storming out. Her **mother** was not a mother. **She** was worse than **him. He** was different, always. **She** was always the same._

 _Only one **mother**. **He** seemed to be a different person every week. First **he** was tall and dark. Then **he** was fat and blond. There had been so many **he** s and only ever one **she**. Every **he** recieved the same direction: Use The Girl As You Wish, I Don't Care What Happens To Her. There had been, of course, **he** s who didn't physically hurt her. But they still would order her around and yell at her if she did something wrong._

 _She had to clean, cook, take care of Younger Girl, complete homework, and please **her** and whatever **he** there currently was. But she could remember the first **he.** That **he** had been hesitant to order her around until **Mother** convinced him otherwise._

 _Younger Girl. She must think of Younger Girl. The direction given to **he** about her was: Ignore Her, She Is Useless. Where was Younger Girl? She would really be in trouble if Younger Girl got herself hurt._

 _Then **Mother** appearent in the doorframe. **She** was scowling. Bad sign. "You could not cook a **simple meal.** I am dissappointed in you. Nevertheless, there is someone I would like for you to meet."_

 _'There is someone I would like for you to meet'. That meant a new **he.** Joy._

 _She followed **Mother** down the stairs. The man was standing there, dirty-blond and hazel-eyed, or maybe black-haired and blue-eyed. All the **he** s blended together now._

 _"His name is **& *(%^ .** Introduce yourself."_

 _She turned to the man and spoke in a monotone. "Greetings. My name is Cherilyn, though you may call me what you wish. I will cook, clean, and otherwise do things around the house as I should. Ask me to do anything, and I shall do it," she recited._

 _ **He**_ _whistled. "You got this one trained good, didn'tcha, **$# * & %?"**_

 ** _Mother_** _seemed to agree. Then **she** dismissed her to hunt for Younger Girl._

 _Younger Girl turned out to be hiding in the laundry room. She didn't complain as Cherilyn led her to the hall. "I'm scared, Lynnie," she whispered. "What is the new man going to do to us?"_

 _"You will be safe," Cherilyn responded. "They use me. They are meant to ignore you."_

 _Younger Girl was silent, for her own good. They were in the hall again._

 _"This is ***# &!#**. Ignore her," said Cherilyn. Then she dismissed her and excused herself to her room. She climbed the stairs as softly as she could while **Mother** and **He** spoke._

 _Once she sat on the mattress, she pulled a beat-up diary and pen from underneath it. She logged the day's events quietly. The date was January 9th, 2005._

 _Then she heard a noise. **Mother** was leaving again. The house only contained Younger Girl, likely back in the laundry room, Cherilyn, and **he.** She immediatly stashed her diary back under the mattress, the final line simply being 'I wish I were an adult; then I would not have to be here any longer, and I could be safe with __***# &!#.**' Then she smoothed down her skirt, freeing it of the wrinkles (or at least trying to)._

 _ **He** was standing in the doorframe now. **He** looked her up and down with a predatory look she was used to by now. "...You said you'd do **anything**?"_

* * *

Chara woke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright in the twin bed. Her red locket rested on her heart- the locket she received from Asriel. He'd gotten a gold one... Right. Where was she? Her room, from when she lived with the Dreemurrs. She still preferred to sleep here, though Asgore's bed was bigger and more comfortable.

She stood up as fast as she could, limping to the door and ignoring everything else. The burn scar on her arm hurt a bit more today, probably because of the dream. Of course, there were other scars- self-harm, **punishments** , the usual.

Chara left the room and her memories and tried to run, but her leg injury got in the way. "Do you need any help?" a voice trilled. She looked up.

Him.

W.D. Gaster Serif.

She took his hand silently, and then the two were suddenly in Snowdin.

Chara dragged her feet in the snow. "Snowdin, huh? Feeling nostalgic or something?"

The skeleton stiffened. "Of course not. I simply wanted to be here."

"Hm. Hey, how's that leg brace coming along? It's the least you could do after you couldn't fix it when I fell." She could tell he was rolling his eyes.

"It will be finished soon."

"Good. I'd love to be able to run again without stabbing pain." _The last time I ran was to the Underground. Whoops._

 _Yeah. Whoops._

* * *

 _There had not been a **he** for quite some time now. About a year, if she remembered correctly. **Mother** was currently preferring to be alone. Younger Girl was nowhere to be seen as of late. Cherilyn stood in front of the mirror, applying makeup over her black eye. "She won't hit me as hard if I look cuter," she murmured to herself. She repeated the mantra to herself many times. She wore a green and yellow sweater that covered her scars, a brown skirt, and tights. Her long, straight auburn hair fell over her shoulders in waves, blown by the breeze coming in through the open window. It was shiny, and pretty. It was her pride and joy. She had nothing to make herself look any cuter. Her sigh was cut short by **Mother** 's screech._

 _"CHERILYN THELMA THOMAS!"_

 _"Coming, Mother!" Cherilyn called downstairs. She knew she was in trouble, so she walked quickly, nearly running (running was against the rules, it was unladylike) down the stairs. In the dining room sat **Mother** , many **he** s somehow (friends from work? previous **he** s? friends of a current **he** who hadn't shown up yet?), and Younger Girl._

 _Younger Girl?_

 _No. She must say her name._

 _Her name._

 _Her name was..._

 _"Nicole? What's going on?"_

 _There was a battered book sitting on the dining room table. Her diary. Every single entry she'd ever written was in there, it wasn't like she could have gotten a new one._

 _"I found your diary, dearest." **Mother** 's tone was full of malice. "I read every single word. Every rule you broke, every time you snuck out, every time you said you hated anybody, every time you said Nicole shouldn't be ignored because she was beautiful."_

 _Cherilyn's heart sunk._

 _"But most importantly, I know of every time you said that you wished you were an adult, because you wanted to leave this place. And that... is unforgivable. Boys~? Help a lady out... would you?"_

 _ **Mother**_ _now gained a sadistic tone as every **he** at the table looked ready to pounce._

* * *

"Queen?" Gaster's bored tone broke through the mental barrier. "Are you there?"

Chara jumped. "What?!"

"I apologize. You zoned out."

"Oh. Well, shut up." Chara turned on her heel roughly. She realized she was wearing a sweater identical to the one she'd worn that day. Dammit, she SO didn't need this today-

* * *

 _"You know, I didn't mention this earlier, in front of the men," **Mother** trilled. "But I must ask you something." The **he** s had all left, after having their fun._

 _Cherilyn was shivering on the ground. **Mother** did have, at least, the decency to cover her. Simple pajamas, an old torn nightgown. "...Who is Brendan?"_

 _She froze. Brendan. Her only comfort. BRENDAN. **SHE** COULDN'T KNOW ABOUT HIM **SHE** COULDN'T KNOW **SHE** COULDN'T._

 _"You always snuck out to see him~. Oh, dear Cherilyn," **Mother** chuckled. "...I knew you were a devil child."_

 _"What-"_

 _ **Mother** lunged forward. "You are nothing but a WHORE. Those demon eyes- I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance!" **she** screamed, **her** heel slamming into Cherilyn's back._

 _"M-Mother, please!" she choked out._

 _" **Tell me who Brendan is."**_

 _Cherilyn shook her head weakly._

 _"Figured as much..." **Mother** sighed, and then walked away. For one moment, Cherilyn almost thought she were safe. Then **she** came back again. "How about this? Until you tell me who Brendan is and why you would go to his house so much..." **she then raised a kitchen knife.**_

 _ **"You lose every bit of that hair you seem to love so much. Plus, bloodshed~."**_

 _Cherilyn refused. Chop._

 _She refused. Chop._

 _She refused. Chop._

 _She refused. Chop. Her hair was soon to her chin and there were nicks all over her face, but she didn't dare cry._

 _"Lynnie?"_

 ** _Oh, no._**

 _Nicole came into view, a terrified mess. Her medium-length black hair was pulled into short braids for the day._

 _"GET OUT OF HERE!" **Mother** bellowed. **She** turned to face Younger Girl. "YOU ARE NOTHING. YOU ARE A MISTAKE. I SHOULD HAVE THROWN YOU OUT THE MOMENT YOU APPEARED ON MY DOORSTEP!"_

 _It happened so fast, there was still a choked scream in Cherilyn's throat minutes after. There was blood on the knife now. Nicole's eyes would be forever widened, in a final deathly emotion._

 _She was gone._

 _Cherilyn weakly tore herself away from **Mother**._

 _Then she ran for her life, tearing up the stairs, and then leaping out of the still open window in her bedroom. Then she ran, nothing but the raggedy nightgown and the scraps of her old sweater on her back._

* * *

Chara finally collapsed in the snow, sobbing her eyes out and babbling apologies. Gaster absentmindedly patted the top of her head.

Her emotional outburst almost made him feel _bad_ for what he was planning...

But, nevertheless, there was the good of the 'people' to think about. His sibling had already left last night. Whatever, he wouldn't need their help.

He no longer needed the older sibling to be there for him.

* * *

A few hours later, there was a blonde beauty sprawled out on her comfortable bed. Her hair spilled over the pillows, long and soft. With no warning, she jerked awake.

Her name was Sadie Camp.

Sadie immediately reached for her phone, and then realized she had a text from her brother.

Her brother, who was 22 years old. He was soon going to graduate from college.

 ** _Bro:_** _quick question did you ever remember me hanging out with a girl name Lyn or smthn  
_ _ **You:**_ _cant say i do, why?  
 **Bro:** idk memories lol  
_

Sadie turned off her phone and laid back in bed- it was Sunday, she didn't need to hurry. Well, maybe to get her homework done before tomorrow but _shhhhhh_ -

Her brother could be weird sometimes.

But that was just Brendan for you.

* * *

 **Fun fact, it's 7:10 as I write this AN according to my laptop's clock. IN THE MORNING. I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT FROM WRITING CHAPTER 8. AND I DID THIS ABSOLUTE SHIT.**

 **Well, chapter 9 is basically just for Chara (I was planning to just,,,, yaknow,,,,, write it over the course of a few days but whatevs) and carries a lot of triggering stuff so dfskhadjkfsghjfalfdsgjk im dead  
**

 **I wrote about 5,000 words in the course of about 9 hours sfajkhsfdlghkjfahlsfshsg  
**

 **anyway review if you want to imsofuckingtired.**


	10. Something In Common

**YOOOOOOOOO ITS YA BOY!**

 **So, instead of the "after chapter 10" thing, I'm think I'm going to be changing my name to GamerWires627 after January 20th. I think that will allow enough time for everyone to know, plus I'll put the old name in my bio.**

 **For WiggleTron9000: I'm not going to confirm or deny anything just yet, but you'll see later on :).**

 **(self-harm tw)**

 **Also, I just reread my fucking notes and I can'teven I totally forgot what was going to happen this chapter asdfghjjkl-**

* * *

Frisk tapped her blue fingernails on her binder, anxiously awaiting when the final bell would ring. It was the finally Thursday, the day when cheerleading tryouts would take place. Then, either Undyne, Sans, or Toriel would have to pick herself and Flowey up and bring them to dance, for Frisk, or gymnastics, for Flowey. Speaking of Flowey, while the duo did share the class, they wound up with a seat all the way in the back. They seemed fine with it, though they couldn't see much of what the teacher wrote on the board. Ever.

Right now, there was about 30 seconds left of class, according to her watch. She was bouncing her leg in anticipation, her purple and white running shoes sometimes squeaking on the floor. Anyone going out for cheer was supposed to wear something easy to move around in- something she could practice dance in, which was what she normally wore this outfit for: a white T-shirt with a rainbow heart on the chest, and black capri-length leggings.

If she looked behind her, she would see Flowey making a new friend, the Japanese girl named Aki. Aki was quiet, had a bob-style haircut, and liked video games, but Frisk had seen her at the park. She kept, somehow, climbing on top of everything. Once she managed to get on top of the lockers, which was weird because she was petite (even shorter than Flowey) and didn't have any tall friends to help her.

The bell rang loud and clear. The room was suddenly filled with young teens scrambling to get up, a few girls being especially quick- they were likely going for cheer, too.

A thought crossed Frisk's mind- what was Flowey going to do while she was at the tryouts? Frisk turned as she left the classroom to try and ask, but they had already disappeared in the crowd. Shrugging it off, she began the walk to the gym, a pep in her step. She was going to make the damn cheer team!

She noticed Alex and Sadie on their way as well. Frisk only knew Sadie from Flowey's descriptions (she'd been highly interested in how Flowey made their own friends so soon), but she could tell it was her. Then that Libby girl showed up. _I guess she's not so bad, a little airheaded, but her heart's in the right place..._

But then, of course, came the standard clique. Tracy Dawson, Anna Kessler, Olivia Wright, and Gabby Chase. Oddly enough, Frisk could see Sam Williams walking droopily behind them. Sam was nonbinary, and they were one of Max's friends. Their mom was probably making them go out for the team- Sam _did_ have the cheerleader (dirty)blond hair and blue (they would swear _gray_ ) eyes.

And then there was a boy following. Frisk recognized him easily. Peter Scott, the most flamboyant guy in school. Was he gay? Maybe. Nobody knew for sure. All anybody knew was that he was feminine _as fuck_. He wasn't annoying, though- at least not to Frisk. Peter was talking to Audrey, the girl with box braids that Frisk had seen at the makeup store about a month ago (or maybe it was more). It was pretty weird to only remember her from there, though... _wait, we're in the same Science class._

Even so, Frisk didn't expect Audrey to want to go out for cheer- she seemed to hate being feminine.

A few more girls that Frisk didn't know the name of filed into the gym. The three women- Linda, Ms. Henderson (an older woman), and a woman Frisk had never seen before were sitting at the table. The unknown woman identified herself as Katherine Bell. _She's gotta be Gloria's sister-in-law or something. They look nothing alike, but they have the same last name..._

Linda squinted at Peter and Frisk, but didn't say anything. _Ha._

And with that, tryouts began.

* * *

Flowey didn't know how much time passed. They'd made a beeline for the bus as soon as the bell rang, ran all the way home from the stop, burst through the door (startling Papyrus in the process), thundered up the stairs, and then flopped onto the bed on their back.

A loud, resigned sigh filled the room. Their arms were itching, but scratching at the scars would be a bad idea (plus, the bandages were blocking them). Today was not a good day. But they weren't sure why- it just seemed that everything annoyed them...

"Hey, kiddo."

They nearly jumped at the voice. They sat upright on the bed in panic, before realizing it was just Sans, leaning in the doorframe.

"Sup?"

"Go away, Trashbag," they growled.

"Nah. I gotta ask you something."

"If it's about the resets then I have no idea."

"It's not about the resets," Sans snapped. A chill traveled up their spine; it dissipated as he sighed and rubbed his face. "Look. I know you've been self-harming. Tori knows too. And she's worried."

"Good for her," they murmured, falling back onto the bed.

"You're also supposed to wear a leotard to your gymnastics lesson tonight," he added. "And it's gonna show _all_ your scars."

"How'd you even find out about that anyway?" Flowey asked, ignoring what he said. They sat up again.

"Well, it's common knowledge in this household that you decided to start doing g-"

"No, you idiot. The self-harm thing."

Sans sighed again. "You wear T-shirts and shorts to bed. Your scars are all over your arms and legs. Everyone in the house knows."

"...oh."

"How long since you did it last?"

There was complete and utter silence. _Don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him._

"I'm not gonna judge you. How long has it been?" Sans stepped into the room, crossing his arms. "If you don't answer, Tori's gonna have to ask you. And that conversation is not gonna be easy on the emotions for-"

"12 hours," they spat. "It's been 12 hours."

The skeleton seemed taken aback. Flowey's face flushed. "You said you wanted to know."

Flowey curled in on themself. Tears began to prick the corners of their eyes. "This morning, I got up after a nightmare and I went in the bathroom." Their face was barely more than a whisper. "And then I did it."

"...I wasn't expecting that..." Sans said quietly. "Flowey-"

"Shut up. I don't care. Just go tell Toriel what I said."

"I think you care."

"No, I-"

"You're crying."

The sudden silence hit Flowey like a truck. They numbly felt their face. Wet cheeks were all that greeted them. Flowey wiped away the tears and then rested their hand on their leg. "I'm not crying..."

"Jeez, kid..." Sans's shoulders slumped. "I didn't think-"

"Shocker. You didn't think. Do you ever?" they snapped. "Idiot. No wonder you let your family fall apart." They half-regretted it the moment the words slipped out.

"That was _highly_ uncalled for!" Sans shouted.

"Oh, you're yelling now! I didn't know you could do that, Mr-"

"Shut up!"

"You're the one who came in here to ask an invasive question!"

"Toriel wanted to know because she's _worried_ about you! Just like she worries about Frisk, because don't think you're the only person who self-harms in this house!"

"I-"

Flowey stopped talking immediately and raised their hand to their mouth. "...What?"

"Yeah. Where did you _think_ her scars came from?"

"Well, I knew where they came from, I just didn't think she was _still_ doing it!"

"She's been clean for a week, but she might be _lying_ for all I know. Everyone's worried about her. And we're all worried about _you_."

"Why would _you_ worry about me?" Flowey asked sharply. "You hate me. I hate you. Nobody else knows who I am."

"Because you just so happen to be my _dead best friend,_ " Sans growled. "Or did you forget that? Did you forget that you gave me a locket to match yours and Chara's? Did you forget that we literally _grew up together_?!"

"Of course I didn't-"

"Didn't you help Mettaton with that Chips and Dip Challenge thing he tried for YouTube?"

"Well, yeah-"

"Didn't you start watching Black Butler with Alphys?"

"Yes, but-"

"Didn't you cook with Undyne the other day?"

"I mean, yeah-"

"Don't you still talk to Papyrus?"

"Of course I do-"

"And didn't you help Toriel make a butterscotch pie yesterday?"

"Stop interrupting me!" they yelled. "Yes, I did all those things! That doesn't mean-"

"Then why would you say they don't know who you are?"

Everything went quiet again. Flowey turned away from Sans.

"...Kid?"

They wouldn't respond. There was no way he could care, there was no way Toriel could care, there was no way Undyne could care, there was no way Alphys could care, there was no way Papyrus could care, there was no way Mettaton could care, there was no way Frisk could care, there was no way, no way, no way-

"Hey-"

"Leave me alone."

Sans didn't protest. Flowey heard the soft shuffle of his slippers on the floor as he left the room.

* * *

Frisk walked out of the gym about an hour later feeling droopy. She wasn't sure she'd managed to make the team. Alex offered her a comforting smile as they split, Frisk heading to the parking lot to be picked up and brought to dance. Adjusting her backpack straps, she changed her tired slink to a brisk strut to keep up appearances. Sans and Flowey were standing on the sidewalk waiting for her, the latter, oddly enough, wearing the former's trademark blue jacket. They'd also put their hair into a short ponytail.

Sans extended a hand casually. "Hey. You ready for dance?"

"Yeah." Frisk took his hand, and then the trio teleported to the parking lot of the building. The place where Frisk got her dance lessons also had a big area for gymnastics. The lessons there were good, though Flowey had to either wear a leotard or tank top and shorts, since it was normally somewhat warm in the area and they would have to wear something that wouldn't fly up.

The three of them then headed inside. Frisk tossed her backpack at Sans and watched as he exaggerated a recoil. There was a counter and stools in front of a big window, for parents to wait in front of the gymnastics area. Sans set her backpack on one of the chairs. Flowey unzipped the blue jacket and tossed it over to Sans, showing that they were wearing black tight shorts that reached to just above their knee and a black tank top with wide straps tucked in, to make it look like a leotard maybe. There were bandages around their arms, but none on their legs- letting the scars there be fully seen. They seemed to disregard it, breaking into a run, pushing the door to the gymnastics area open, and then going off to find their class.

Sans raised his hand and Frisk nearly flinched, but then she noticed he was wearing a black hairtie around his wrist. He removed it and tossed it to her. "Figured you might need this."

"How'd ya do that?" Frisk teased, pulling her hair into a ponytail. It had gotten everywhere during auditions- this would definitely be better.

"Saw Flowey with one, realized you might need one too because of that crazy hair of yours."

Frisk gasped in mock offense. "Well, my class started two minutes ago. Gotta bounce!"

If Sans said anything after, she didn't hear him.

* * *

Flowey realized the moment they walked in that this might not have been a good idea. Everyone looked nice enough. They knew the instructor had already been informed of their scars, but the other kids hadn't. There was a tiny, bouncy girl with dirty-blond hair. She immediately dashed over and introduced herself as Piper. The instructor introduced herself as Ms. Z, and she seemed nice enough. The other kids all eyed Flowey with an air of disgust, or maybe it was pity instead (they must have looked a mess). Two girls- Flowey later learned that their names were May and Selene- whispered to each other and were promptly smacked by Piper, as she was standing near them. Then there was Leo and Jane- two normal kids a little younger than Flowey.

They looked behind them- Sans was leaning on the counter, sitting on a stool. He waved lazily when he saw them look. _No, no backing out now._

Flowey forced a smile and introduced themself. The instructor proclaimed that it would be an easy day and led everyone to a trampoline on a platform leading to a bit of foam cubes. There was a rope above the cubes, but everyone seemed to ignore it. Flowey heard Selene giggling behind them at what May had just said- "Better keep Flowey away from the rope."

They brushed it off. The instructor announced that they would just be introducing Flowey to things today, so they would be on the same level as everyone else soon. She decided to start with a simple front handspring and called on Piper to demonstate. "After all," she pointed out. "Piper, you've made friends with her nicely."

"Them," Flowey corrected automatically. Everyone seemed to stare at them.

"What was that?"

Nothing. Nope, they didn't say anything, nothing at all. Zero. Nada.

"I prefer 'they'." _What the fuck are you doing?!_

"Oh. Well, Piper, show _them_ how to do a front handspring."

The tiny girl was beaming. _I can't tell if Ms. Z's mocking me or if she's actually not going to misgender me._

 _...guess I'll just have to see how this goes._

* * *

 _Time: 8:34 PM.  
Location: Bedroom.  
Status: Tired as fuck.  
Flowey's Status: Quiet.  
Sans's Status: At Grillby's.  
Mom's Status: Unknown- likely grading papers or reading.  
Alphys's Status: Watching Anime.  
Papyrus's Status: Unknown.  
Mettaton's Status: Sleeping or filming a vlog.  
Undyne's Status: Somewhere._

Something about thinking of Undyne's status as just being 'somewhere' was funny to her. She snickered.

"Shut up," Flowey mumbled.

"Rude."

"I am trying to do my homework. Shut up."

Frisk rolled her eyes. She was currently laying on the bed on her back, enjoying a homeworkless night. The blond was sitting on the bed with damp hair from a shower and wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. Frisk's laptop was on the bed- they were using the online version of their algebra book for their homework. Their red math notebook was already battered from just carrying it around (it wasn't the best quality anyway, and besides, _math is a blue subject you can't convince me otherwise)._

"How was your gymnastics class?" Frisk asked.

"Fine."

And then back to Flowey writing stuff down in their notebook.

"Why'd you think Sans immediately ran off to go to Grillby's after the lesson?" she wondered.

"Because he probably thinks Grillby's kinda, yaknow... _hot._ "

"I thought you hated puns!" Frisk half-shouted.

"Nah... Just puns coming from Sans. Besides, I know for a fact that when we were kids, Sans had _the most innocent_ crush on Grillby ever. Which seemed to be bad news for him when that _flamer_ came out as gay."

"Why would it be bad news for him?" Frisk squinted.

"...Uh, nevermind. I still have homework to-"

Frisk hardly knew it was happening until it was over. The ground seemed to shake underneath her, though she was laying in bed, and Flowey felt it too, snapping the laptop shut and hunching over in fear.

 _Earthquake._

It was all over in just a moment. Frisk sat up the moment the tremor stopped- she'd grown up in this area, she was used to the occaisional earthquake. But then she saw Flowey, still hunched over. They were shaking. They finally sat up again, trembling, and then their SOUL emerged.

The small crack that had been there a few days ago had now expanded. Their SOUL was split in two.

Automatically, Flowey lept up from the bed, threw the bay window open, and snatched The Branch, disappearing into the night. "Wait, Flowey! Where are you going?!"

Frisk had no choice but to follow them.

* * *

"My head is _killing_ me," Sans complained tiredly. "I've barely gotten _any_ sleep for days."

"As opposed to your normal 12 hours?" a warm voice teased lightly, a small chuckle in his voice. The firey bartender was leaning over the bar, his fingers intertwined with Sans's.

"Shut it, hot stuff," the skeleton said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth nontheless. Sitting on the barstool, he lowered his head calmly.

"In all seriousness," Grillby began. "Is it nightmares? Are you relapsing? Panic attacks? Are you okay, Sans?"

"'M fine. Just worried about the kid."

"You always say you're fine. Which one?"

"...Flowey."

Grillby was silent for a moment. Sans let the noise of the rowdy people that came to Grillby's at night fill his mind.

"I thought you didn't like them."

"Yeah... well, things got a whole lot more complicated the other day."

"How so?"

Sans was silent this time.

"Sans, please, I want to know what's bothering you."

"Yeah, I know. You're just trying to be a good boyfriend, I know, I know. Sorry."

"You don't need to apologize."

"Habit."

"...oh, right."

Grillby hummed to himself.

"So, what _is_ bothering you then?"

"Some things they said. It's nothing, really."

"I don't think it's nothing."

"They told me something important."

"...Important, like these?" Grillby asked softly. He rubbed Sans's wrist, and it didn't take the skeleton long to figure out what he was talking about. Sans's sleeve was rolled up, revealing the chips along his radius and ulna.

"Sorta," he responded, pulling his sleeve back up. "...Grillby, the other night I found out that... they're actually As-"

And then the tremors came. Sans nearly fell to the floor in shock as nearly everyone in the bar ducked or yelled or something. When it was over, his head cleared and the pain was gone. He slipped out of his seat and dashed out the door.

The air outside was crisp. For some reason, he knew he had to go somewhere- like a subconscious feeling of some sort.

"Sans? What are you doing?"

"I gotta go somewhere, I'll see ya later, hot stuff!" Sans yelled behind him as he started running.

"Sans! Wai-"

What Grillby was trying to say was lost to the wind. Sans knew where he had to go.

The forest on the mountain.

* * *

 **And with that finishes chapter 10! You all know the situation with reviews by now, so I'm not gonna make myself a broken record. I got kinda rushed at the end, sorry guys.**

 **Let's see, self-harm stuff was touched upon, Flowey alluded to something Frisk doesn't know about Sans, and Sansby confirmation!**

 **Just saying, Sansby and Torigore are what will be shipped instead of Soriel or something (I personally heavily dislike Soriel for many reasons, the most major being that I just see them as close friends or something).**


	11. Why Are You Alive?

**Whaddup guys? This is a very special chapter indeed. Someone special will be introduced this chapter! We all know and love him. He's a fluffy boy. He's great.**

* * *

Frisk's feet were getting dirty, but that was the last thing on her mind. For the second time in a week, she was chasing somebody into the woods. _Funny how this happened._ Flowey was a lot faster than either Sans or Frisk, but she could see their yellow-blond hair easily in the darkness. The trees weren't even a hazard to them, and they weren't wearing shoes either, so Frisk wasn't sure how they could be going so fast.

The blur she was chasing stopped in an instant and just stared at a spot in front of them. She nearly crashed right into their back- in fact, she _did_ , but didn't move them enough for it to knock them down.

"Frisk, look."

She nearly didn't see what they were talking about until she realized that dirt was not white (or, in the lighting, a grayish color). And the green and yellow probably weren't wildflowers. And then the figure on the ground in front of the duo opened his blue eyes.

* * *

Asriel squinted in the dark. _Where am I?_

The last thing he remembered was the flowers in the Ruins before he felt himself start to shrink- when he turned into Flowey. After that? Nothing. For a moment, he thought he was still in the Underground, turned back to his true form by some miracle of magic, but then he saw the trees. And he felt the dirt.

 _Snowdin is the only place in the Underground that has trees. There's no snow._

He finally sat up and looked around. "...The surface? How did...?"

His mind wasn't even working enough to finish his sentence out loud. He turned his head the other way and saw two figures- one, barely recognizable but still the same as when he last saw them, and one was someone he felt he should know yet couldn't put his finger on exactly _who_ they were. So, he started with one he could recognize. "Frisk? What's going on?"

"Uhhmmm..." When he had last seen them, they were a little shorter and a lot scrappier. But now they were more well kept, no longer wearing childish striped clothes like they had been in the Underground- a shirt with a heart on it and black pants. Their hair was noticeably longer as well, and they overall just _looked_ more feminine.

Wait a minute. Childish striped clothes.

He looked down. He was wearing, of course, the green-with-yellow-stripes t-shirt he'd been wearing before he became a flower again- honestly, he had no idea why, he _was_ old enough to stop wearing it. And of course his black pants.

"...Asriel?"

"Frisk?"

They nodded softly. "Yeah, it's me..."

"What the fuck are you doing here?!" The blond yelled, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I thought you were _gone!"_

Asriel was, frankly, dumbstruck. Who was this person, and why did they seem to dislike him? "...Who _are_ you?"

Now it was the blond stranger's turn to be surprised. "Do you _not_ have any of my memories? C'mon. It's me. Flowey."

"...That can't be right."

What.

Not even a question mark, that's how confused he was.

 _WHAT._

"I can tell ya, it's definitely true," the person claiming to be Flowey stated bluntly.

Asriel, in that moment, decided to stand up. Then he realized that he was suddenly _tall-_ when he'd last seen Frisk, he was just barely taller than them, but now he felt like he nearly towered over them and 'Flowey'. 'Flowey' seemed a bit unnerved by his height, while Frisk was unreadable. "How is it true? You're supposed to be a flower."

"Look, it is a _really_ long story and I would rather not talk about it."

"They're right," Frisk said. "It's pretty complicated."

Asriel almost was about to keep asking, because he really wanted to know. But then a white and blue figure tumbled out of the bushes unexpectedly, stumbling and nearly bumping into Frisk.

"Sans?"

The skeleton brushed himself off sarcastically. "What an astute observation. Now, are-"

When he caught sight of Asriel, whatever comment he was about to share died in favor of a tiny gasp.

"No _way._ "

* * *

Flowey wasn't sure why they suddenly felt like throwing up. Maybe it was the fact that they were being reminded of the day Chara died. Maybe it was the fact that any of the small bits of kindness Sans had shown towards them after the incident with the broken glass (i.e., actually caring about their cuts) would never be shown again now that their old self, the one Sans _actually_ gave two shits about, was back.

Maybe it was the looks of utter guilt and horror Asriel and Sans were exchanging, both remembering what had happened. Both knowing exactly why Asriel died.

Asriel had a bigger heart than Flowey. He would be more willing to apologize for the hateful words exchanged the day of his death.

Even though Sans had done most of the yelling.

Even though they had been fighting over something as utterly mundane as Asriel being unwilling to reveal a secret.

Time seemed to freeze in front of them.

"I hate you," said Sans. There was no remorse in his tone as he said it. Just the stiffening of his form and the shocked expression of Asriel. Without warning, the petite skeleton bolted forward and nearly tackled Asriel in a hug.

The goat boy was even more shocked and confused. But he, nonetheless, wrapped his arms around Sans awkwardly, and said, "I missed you too."

After a moment, Frisk cleared her throat. "I hate to break up such a lovely reunion, but we have something to talk about here."

Sans jumped away from Asriel like he'd just been burned. He tugged on the sleeves of his jacket and took a few steps back. "Fuck you," he spat, turning roughly on his heel and stalking over to a nearby tree. "Let me know when you want to go home."

Frisk took a few steps forward. Then she poked Asriel in the stomach.

"Yes, I'm really here, Frisk," he sighed.

"Right."

Flowey's hands balled into fists. "What even is there to talk about? Asriel's back because of some crazy SOUL shit. Done. Let's go home. I have homework to do and sleep to get."

"I guess you're right," said Frisk. "But-"

"No. Let's. Fucking. Go. Home."

* * *

Frisk could tell that Flowey was upset. They were pale, breathing heavily, and when she took their hand when Sans did his shortcut to bring them all back to the house, their hand was clammy. Asriel and Sans weren't looking too well either.

But she was the one brave enough to march up the porch steps and open the front door, calling out a weak, "Mom!" as she did, the other three following her as she stepped inside.

Toriel appeared from around the corner, her kindly smile fading in an instant for a (pleasant) shock.

"Is... is that really you, my son?"

Asriel smiled. "Mom!"

Frisk turned away from the scene and dragged Flowey upstairs. Despite the heartwarming nature of it all, she couldn't bring herself to watch the happy reunion. Not with memories tugging at her mind and Flowey looking increasingly panicked and uncomfortable.

Before she knew it, the second they were in the bedroom, Flowey collapsed onto the bed with a wheezing sob, hugging themself and scratching their own arms. Frisk knew that if they scratched hard enough, they would reopen healing cuts. But oddly enough, the only thing she felt compelled to do was fall onto the bed next to them and hold them close.

* * *

 _So cold._

 _His blanket was far too thin._

 _She was across the room, thinking he couldn't hear her sob._

 _The window was opened. Moonlight and a chilly wind came through._

 _Mother hadn't payed for heating again._

 _She promised to pay soon, though._

 _Hopefully._

 _She was probably drunk when she made that promise._

 _He slipped out of bed and padded across the room, his blanket around his shoulders. He shook her softly, prompting her to move closer to her wall. He climbed into bed next to her, huddling close for warmth. He moved his hands in quiet signs across her chest- she was so used to this she could nearly tell what he was trying to ask._

 _"She's going to be fine. If I know my Elizabeth Charlotte Lawrence, and I know her, she's probably just looking for food or money. She might find a book if she's lucky."_

 _Speak of the devil, there was a thud, and then there was a scrappy, brunette, thin (everyone was thin in this house) girl landing roughly on the dirty carpet. She had a plastic bag slung over her shoulder, and as she tossed it down he knew she had to have found or stolen something._

 _He didn't realize until she crawled in next to the siblings that she was freezing to the touch, and looking at her face revealed a near-blue tinted mouth._

 _"Aliza!" his sister gasped._

 _"I-I'll be f-f-fine."_

 _Frisk moved closer to Tanya, who moved even closer to the wall to allow Aliza to_ not _fall off the bed. All three were close together, curled up in all the blankets available. And Tanya's ratty coat._

* * *

Flowey never did get their homework done.

A few minutes after they'd come upstairs, and after hearing all the commotion caused by Asriel, the goat boy himself came up and flopped onto the bed on his stomach, facing Frisk.

"What a day," he remarked.

"You've barely been here. At all," Frisk reminded.

All three heard Toriel asking loudly (she likely was unaware of her volume) if they owned an air mattress for Asriel to sleep on.

"You can't possibly imagine how happy everyone was to see me. It was so..."

"Uplifting?" Flowey said, face smushed into the fluffy purple pillow.

"I guess. I think I have to go back downstairs soon, though. Mom wants to register me for school as soon as possible."

"That's unfortunate."

* * *

A black, backwards book slammed down onto the tabletop, making the jumpiest of the bunch- Yellow- flinch.

"We are gathered here today," began Green, "to choose new names. Our Queen has been cruel to us, branding us with disrespectful monikers. If we are to rebel against their reign, we must first rebel against their control. I have already chosen my name."

The five seated all cocked their heads in interest as their leader spoke.

"My name is Kira. I have read a book in which a character takes the epithet 'Kira' to carry out his holy justice, and as an added bonus, I'm certain it's similar to my old name. Violet, what about you?"

The arrogant, bookish boy cleared his throat before he spoke. "Percy. Close to my trait, read a book and the protag had it."

Cyan's words were strained and raspy, but she eventually settled on 'Paisley', something close to what The Queen called her.

"I'm Jaden," said Yellow. "I feel like it's close to my original name."

"Ingrid," spoke Blue. "It's close to my trait..."

"And Orange?" Kira turned to him, followed by the rest.

He tapped his fingers on the table. "I'm keeping Brae. It sounds cool."

"Are you certain?"

"Unless you want me to choose Baelfire instead..."

"No, no. Keep Brae."

Kira sighed and took her seat. "Arial has already left the Underground. It seems that they would rather find their nephews instead of stay and help us rule this wasteland. Flowey left as well, and I regret not finding Frisk before they left together. Our plans aren't going as we wished them to, but that doesn't mean it's hopeless."

"She's right, you know."

Almost everyone, including Brae, jumped. There was Dr. W.D. Gaster in the doorway of the library, standing tall. "That soul Our Queen created for Flowey has finally split. Asriel is alive again."

"How do you know this?"

"I saw them on the mountaintop."

"Oh. Are our plans still on for tomorrow?"

"Yes. I have almost completed pulling our last needed person out of the Void. Tomorrow..."

He chuckled darkly.

"Our Queen will fall."

* * *

 **Short chapter today guys, sorry but I just wrote myself into a corner and it took me so long to change it.**


	12. To The Point

**Hey my guys! I don't really have much to talk about, other than I've began new stories called Unexpected and Insanity... And I'm planning a short, thirteen-chapter story about Frisk's backstory. I'm also really sorry about the delay jesus christ-**

* * *

Being a Queen was no fun, especially when you were the Queen of nothing.

Chara tapped her feet on the floor.

Or was she a _he_? Or a _they_?

The recent title of 'queen' wasn't something she particularly felt comfortable with.

Oh well. She would figure this out later, as Kine had requested an audience with its queen.

 **"I am female. My name is Kira,"** it growled. Chara startled, but before she could open her mouth, Gaster followed the soldier uninvited.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Chara snapped.

"I simply bring a gift," he said with a wide smile. He held a bag with a soft red glow coming from the interior. "Chara Theodosia Dreemurr," he began. "Your Majesty, the gift I have for you is quite reminiscent of the various gifts you have given to your subjects. Flowey, a new form and a SOUL. Myself, an escape from the Void. Your loyal soldiers, renewed life and magical prowess. However, your behavior as of late has been rather... inexcusable."

"How-"

"I'm not finished!" he said as though a father would. Or maybe not; Chara was too young to remember her father when he died. "To deal with your crass habits, I and _Kira_ here have enlisted the help of the remaining inhabitants of this wasteland. So, to begin... your gift."

He dug a mutilated hand into the sack and smashed the glass contents on the floor- or so it seemed. The red and black heart-shaped item flew up, hovered in place at eye level with Chara, and slammed into her chest. She shrieked in the sudden feeling of emotion.

Tears sprang to her eyes out of nowhere and she fell out of her throne, nearly hyperventilating.

Gaster approached. "Oh, have you already had enough, little queen?" he crooned. "I haven't even introduced you to my _lovely wife!_ " His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Kira grabbed Chara roughly by the chin and forced her to look beyond the dead flowers at the entrance to the throne room. A skeleton woman, about half a head shorter than her 'husband', strolled in nonchalantly. She wore a torn, vibrant red dress and no shoes. She wore a scarf over her head, though it could have been a bonnet- Chara's vision felt a little fuzzy.

The skeleton woman approached with a girlish, sickening giggle. "Hello! I'm sure I've never met you before, dear. I am the mother of Sans and Papyrus."

Beat.

This was Calibri Serif.

Beat.

The woman who caused so much pain and anguish for all parties involved with her.

Beat.

"No fucking way-" Chara's vulgarity was met with a harsh slap to the mouth.

"Don't use such language!" Calibri scolded. "It's unladylike."

 _Unladylike.  
_ _Unladylike._

 _Exactly what **she** said to me._

Chara thrashed in Kira's grip, elbowing the demon in the side and getting to her feet. The other soldiers swarmed in, and Jaden was hot on her trail as she ran out of the room towards where the barrier had been.

Jaden tackled her to the ground just as she caught the first glimpse of moonlight in years. Seeing the fear in her eyes, he reluctantly got off the ground, turned around, and fell to his knees. "Go find Frisk," he mumbled. "Please."

Chara nodded and took off again with the speed-walking she was forced to do due to her bad leg. As she clambered up the tunnel, she faintly heard the screech of "JADEN YOU USELESS SACK OF-"

* * *

 _Her feet landed softly on the vibrant yellow flowers and they gasped for the first time in eight years. "God!" His hand flew out to grab the throne's armrest._

 _Frisk was gone. That was the only explanation. Right?_

 _Chara had no idea. So he began to walk._

 _They felt empty inside. He was like Flowey._

 _She needed to go to the True Lab. And find Flowey._

 _The elevator screeched. It had been overused by all the monsters escaping. Through the CORE, through Hotlands, to the elevator. Down, down, down._

 _The DT extractor._

 _But who to extract it from?_

 _A rumbling behind her. An amalgamation overlooked._

 _They smiled._

 _She guided it to the machine._

 _He flipped the switch._

 _It didn't even scream._

 _So much DETEMINATION. Seven vials full. What to do with it?_

 _A chime._

 _A SOUL._

 _Whose SOUL?_

 _Asriel's._

 _They beckoned to the SOUL. "Follow me."_

* * *

She panted for breath, leaning over with her hands on her knees. All she could see was the cracked sidewalk with weeds popping up in corners. The house she was closest to was alive with incredibly loud music, but she didn't care much. The house at the end of the road was much more important.

That was the only place she could be, as the burned-out exterior clearly suggested nobody wanted the old thing anymore. Perfect.

There was a girl with long black hair walking down the sidewalk; half of her jumped in surprise before realizing that it wasn't Nicole.

The door creaked as she opened it, the lock never having been used. The stairs were fragile, but she stepped lightly enough to leave them unbothered. Upstairs, everything was just as she had left it ten years ago. She stepped into her old room- the one she sometimes shared with Nicole.

Nicole was normally made to sleep in the laundry room, but on occasion, Chara would sneak her upstairs.

"Lynnie?"

She whirled around, auburn hair obscuring her vision for a moment. "Nicole?!"

A skeleton girl stood a few feet away, her pink dress in rags and her eyes purple pinpricks in darkness. For some odd reason, she'd kept her black hair; it was on her shoulders and frizzy.

Chara was unable to resist the urge to hug her close, Nicole immediately latching onto her older cousin like a koala. Feeling the bones beneath Nicole's dress wasn't new in terms of hugging Nicole- she'd always been bony. Becoming a skeleton after her death was the only logical turn of events.

"How are you alive?" Chara whispered. "You shouldn't be."

"I don't know... I just. Woke up a few days ago... Do you want to see something cool?"

* * *

 _"Do you know why I summoned you?" he whispered._

 _The demon shifted on its feet. "Nome."_

 _"I have... feelings," they said bluntly._

 _"For me?"_

 _"No."_

 _"..."  
_

 _"I have no SOUL, imbecile. I feel nothing for no one."_

 _"Then what is it you feel?"_

 _"...It's hard to explain."_

 _"You might as well try."_

 _"Sort of..."_

* * *

The rooftop, of course. The stars.

It had been so long since Chara had seen the stars. Nicole was just as mesmerized.

Chara turned to look at Nicole. "Could you do something for me?"

"What is it?" she asked.

"Can you... refer to me with neutral pronouns?"

Nicole smiled. "I'll try my best to. You mean, um, they/them, right?"

"Yeah. That."

* * *

 _"As you two know, I am only able to cook precisely one thing," mused the tall skeleton man._

 _Papyrus squeaked in anticipation. Sans's hand propped up his chin on the table._

 _"And what is that?" he drawled, though he obviously already knew the answer._

 _His father delivered a plate to him. "Spaghetti, of course." Soon enough, there were three more plates made- one for his father, one for Papyrus, and one for his mother._

 _Speak of the devil and she shall appear, and speak of Calibri Verdana Serif and she will ruin your day._

* * *

"Sans, wake up!"

The skeleton sat bolt upright, startling the three teenagers in the room. Asriel was the farthest away, leaning awkwardly against the doorframe. Flowey was hiding behind Frisk, who was standing next to his mattress.

"Oh. What's up?"

"We, uh... overslept... I'm guessing Mom didn't wake you up?" Frisk sighed.

Sans shook his head. "Nah. How much of school did you miss?"

"Not any, actually- uh, Asriel woke up when the bus came by and everyone else was gone so canyoupleasetakeustoschool-"

"Mhm. One sec."

Sans got out of bed, shrugging into his blue jacket, deciding that he would only be there for a moment and slipping his feet into his favorite pink slippers. He then reached out to take the hands of his charges and in the next moment, they were standing in the back of school where parents picked up and dropped off their children.

"Go on, kiddos," he murmured, as the three immediately dashed off. He caught the stare of a brunette woman in a jean skirt with a girl with braided brown hair glued to her hip (the kid was protesting against this arrangement). He winked nonchalantly and used the same shortcut to land in his bed and fall right back asleep.

* * *

Frisk broke through the crowd with Flowey at her heels. Asriel had already went off to his very first class, in his purple flannel and jeans and such. Flowey wore a pastel orange sweater, brown boots, and black leggings, compared to Frisk's cyan converse, white skinny jeans, and fashionable sleeveless cyan blouse with decorative white lace near the top. She had placed a clip-on bow in the back of her curly tresses with Asriel's help earlier- the color matched her shirt and shoes.

She hit the wall near the bulletin board and craned her neck up to see.

 ** _CHEER TEAM, 2018-2019_**

 _TRACY DAWSON  
ALEXANDRA SMITH  
SAMANTHA WILLIAMS  
ANNA KESSLER  
LYDIA KNOPH  
EMILY JONES  
NAOMI PERKINS  
MIKAYLA KEMP  
MARIE ROSS  
ELEANOR ROSS  
RILEE COOK  
AUDREY DAVIS  
LINDSAY HILL  
ANDREA DREEMURR  
PETER SCOTT_

 _Andrea Dreemurr. Andrea Christine "Frisk" Dreemurr.  
_

"I made it," Frisk whispered.

She soon realized she was talking to nobody, as Flowey had ditched her.

She broke out of the crowd of girls all pushing to see if their name was on the list (Frisk saw Olivia yelling at Libby for getting in, Gabby was nearly in tears while Tracy couldn't care less and flounced away). "FLOWEY!"

"Gotta get to class!" they called over their shoulder, arm-in-arm with Max and Julia.

* * *

Max darted for the top row of seats immediately, slapping a kid on the back as he did. That kid yelled and ran after him.

The bell rang and Ms. Manilla had yet to walk in the room, so Julia dragged Flowey up to that row. "Guys, this is Flowey. Not sure if you've met yet."

"Don't think I have," said a kid with a light brown high ponytail and a yellow bracelet. They wore a baggy rainbow shirt and black skinny jeans and lounged in their rolling chair. "I'm Avery. What're your pronouns?"

"Uhm- I use they/them."

 _That has to be the only person here who doesn't automatically misgender me... that's... pretty great!_

"I'm Hailey," said a girl with short brown hair. She wore a white oversized t-shirt and black leggings. "It's nice to meet you."

The kid Max had smacked brushed some dirty blond hair from their face. "Sam. Neutral pronouns." They wore a purple t-shirt and jeans.

 _That's Diane's kid... poor thing._

"Adrian," waved a boy with dyed red hair hidden under a beige chullo hat. He wore a brown fleece jacket over a white shirt, with white jeans.

Jaime and Liam were the boys next to each other a few seats away. Jaime was black and wore a bright tiltand basketball shorts, a contradiction to his monotone voice and resting bitch face. Liam wore dull colors and was pale, with fluffy brown hair.

Ms. Manilla walked in and Julia brought Flowey back to their shared table. "Max has a lot of friends," she mused.

"Mhm."

* * *

She turned roughly on her heel, scuffing her shoes on the gravel. Her mousy brunette hair was stringy, dry, unkempt. Her stormy eyes flickered with memories. Bad ones. Good ones. Neutral ones. Raindrops on her nose made her blink.

"Lawrence."

She tilted her head to the side. "What?"

"Want somewhere to stay~?" purred that wonderful girl, her dark hair in messy twin buns and eyes pools of ink.

"I have to find her."

"You won't if you get pneumonia. Come inside."

"Andrea."

" _Lawrence_."

"Andrea's an ambassador now. I have to find her."

"Lawrence. Inside. Now."

"Why do you call me by my last name?" 'Lawrence' growled. "How would you like it if I called you 'Ward', Z-"

" _Elizabeth Charlotte Lawrence._ Come inside this instant," said Ward. "And I quite like it."

Lawrence rolled her eyes and trudged inside. Ward shut the door roughly behind her.

"There. Isn't that better, Lawr-"

"For fuck's sake, you know my name."

Ward's eyes narrowed. "Fine."

Lawrence raised her eyebrows. "So?"

"Aliza. Do you want hot chocolate?"

* * *

 **Dun dun duuuuuuuh! Another super late chapter! That's fun!**


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